reverse commute -- somerville to NH? (via Anderson/Woburn) (Boston: apartments, how much)

[foos2]

Hi everyone,

Here's a long detailed scenario

My girlfriend and I are looking to move to Boston/Cambridge/Somerville. She will work just off the red line near Kendall, and I'll probably work 1-2 days near Harvard Sq. Here's the tricky part: 3-4 days a week, I need to commute up to Durham, NH, which is on the Amtrak Downeaster line. Some days I'll take Amtrak, but some days I'll just drive. We've come up with a bunch of options, and I'd love to get some feedback from you guys.

1) The most convenient option could be to live within close walking distance of North Station (e.g., in North End), where the Amtrak Downeaster line originates. From there, it takes 1:20 to get to Durham, NH. My gf would take the green from N Station and transfer to the red at Park St. The drawbacks are that parking in the north end would be a b*tch and apartments could be pricey.

2) Our favorite option is to live in Davis Sq. From there, instead of taking the train out of N Station, I'd pick it up at the next stop in Woburn/Anderson Station, where the train ride from there would only be 1 hour. Google maps estimates it takes 17 min to drive from Davis Sq to Anderson, though I imagine it could take a *lot* longer during morning rush hour. If I need to catch a 9:20am train from Woburn, how much time would I end up spending to get there from Davis Sq? 30 min, 45 min? Any solid estimates on this would be really great. We love Davis Sq because it's more our style, closer to our friends, and closer to our Cambridge places of work on the red line.

3) We could live off the orange line north of Boston (e.g., Malden). It's 10 min to N Station from Malden, and there are some reasonable apts there, from what we saw. I'd need to budget 20 min to get to N Station to make sure I catch my train, then it's another 1:20 to Durham. We like Malden, but it's far from our friends, and the commute to Cambridge would take like 30 min, so we're pretty much ruling this one out.

What do you guys think? Any thoughts, specifically about getting from Davis Sq to Woburn, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[brightdoglover]

I'd vote for the Davis Square idea. Don't see any problems with it at all. Best wishes.

[DG001]

Morning commute from Davis Sq. to Woburn is a breeze - about 20-25 minutes, and 10 minutes of that would be to get you from Davis to 93.

I did it for about two years - the only time there was a problem was if the 93-95 intersection got jammed up for some reason (and unfortunately, that is not an uncommon occurance). But most of that can be "foreseen" by the Montvale exit in Woburn, so you could just take that exit and then take inside roads.

The evenings were, for some reason, tougher - espeically within Cambridge (it would frequently take me 20 minutes from 93 to Davis). Also, everything totally jams up during Xmas and snowstorms.

Other than that, you should be fine.

PS - have you considered living in Woburn? Cheap rents, public transportation straight to Alewife, and easy access to the train. Not exactly like being in the city though!

[foos2]

thanks guys -- this is very helpful!

[foos2]

Originally Posted by DG001

PS - have you considered living in Woburn? Cheap rents, public transportation straight to Alewife, and easy access to the train. Not exactly like being in the city though!

Woburn would definitely be easier for getting up to NH, but the commutes to Cambridge would be probably take 40 min +, instead of about 10 from Davis Sq. Plus, it's all about the big city for us