Living between Edison and Philly (Trenton, Camden: for rent, transferring to, internship)

[aynnotated]

Hey everyone,

I have posted my original thread here: Moving to Philadelphia - question about commute

I was told there may be some of you in a similar situation as me. I just found out that I was accepted into a medical internship at UPenn. I will be moving there this summer. Ideally, my husband would like to move with me; his job would be transferred to Edison, NJ. We are looking for a place that will be feasible for both of us in between Philadelphia and Edison. The issue is that I will be working nights and will be on-call. So my commute cannot be anything over than 30 minutes. My husband is willing to have about a one hour commute; I think he prefers public transportation more than driving.

I also have a 45lb border collie and a cat. So I know that may limit my choices. At the moment, we are looking at living near 30th street station so that I could walk or drive to UPenn and my husband could take the amtrak to Metropark.

If you have any suggestions, we will graciously accept them! If you don't mind, may you please state about how long our commutes would be? I don't trust google maps one bit! Also - we haven't budgeted for rent just yet. Once we sit down and talk about everything (this weekend), I will have a bit more information. Until then, I am narrowing down my choices of areas to live by the commute for each of us.

Thank you in advance!

[NJGOAT]

It's the 30 minutes or less to UPenn part that makes this difficult. In order to guarantee that you can do that at all hours it pretty much limits you to the immediate Philly suburbs in NJ or the immediate Philly area, including Philly, in PA. The issue there is, from the NJ perspective, your husband isn't getting to Edison in less than an hour from any of those areas. So, while there are plenty of options for <30 for you in NJ (pretty much all of western Camden and Burlington Counties, even some sections of Gloucester County), anything on the NJ side is going to be harder on your husband.

From those areas of NJ, he basically has two options:

1. Riverline to Trenton and then pick up NJT or Amtrak to Metropark. This could easily be more then an hour, probably closer to an hour and 30 minutes. The train from Trenton to Metropark is only around 30 minutes, but the Riverline depending on where you are taking it from can easily be a 45 minute ride to Trenton.

2. Drive to Trenton, but that can take 45-60 minutes depending on where you are coming from and traffic. You will then need to deal with finding parking and then taking the train.

It sounds odd, but Philly itself is probably the best location. From 30th Street or even Market East you have a couple of options:

1. 30th Street - You can pay more and take a direct Amtrak train. The cheaper, but slightly longer option is taking the R7 to Trenton and then transferring to NJT to Metropark. That would come out to around an hour or less depending on choice.

2. Market East - Take the R7 to Trenton and then transfer to NJT, same as above.

Given that both stations are an option, that also gives you flexibility on where to live in the city as you won't be stuck having to be near 30th Street and you are going to be less then 30 minutes to UPenn from just about anywhere in the city.

[kemcnyc]

2. Drive to Trenton, but that can take 45-60 minutes depending on where you are coming from and traffic. You will then need to deal with finding parking and then taking the train.

There is plenty of parking in Trenton... or you can even use the Hamilton train station. Both require $$$ though.

So... an option could be an NJ suburb between Philly and Trenton. Florence? Delran? Burlington? Cannot really vouch for these towns. Just ideas.

Also as NJGOAT notes.... could be a stretch as far as getting into Philly in 30 minutes.

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by kemcnyc

There is plenty of parking in Trenton... or you can even use the Hamilton train station. Both require $$$ though.

So... an option could be an NJ suburb between Philly and Trenton. Florence? Delran? Burlington? Cannot really vouch for these towns. Just ideas.

Also as NJGOAT notes.... could be a stretch as far as getting into Philly in 30 minutes.

Good suggestions and they would work for the husband going to Metropark, but getting to UPenn from those locations in 30 minutes or less at all times isn't guaranteed at all. You could do it at night, door-to-door would be right at 30 minutes, but you're basically praying for no traffic. Even Collingswood or Audubon to UPenn at night is around 10-15 minutes.