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I was wondering on average how close the Midtown Direct (that runs through millburn, maplewood, south orange, etc.) adhere to the actual printed schedule - is it usually 5 minutes late, 10 minutes late, more? i'd be traveling on it during rush hours mainly. not sure if that matters. Also, once it arrives at Penn, how close does it stop relative to 1/9 subway. Thanks for insights.
It varies, with the weather and with luck. But safe to count on pulling into NY Penn at least 10 minutes late on average, worse delays in the winter. Penn Station is an embarassment and a horribly "designed" (if you can call it that). It's not unusual to spend 5 minutes on a hot, stinking, platform waiting with a mob of people trying to move toward the few stairways to trudge up the stairs. You'll always end up at a different part of the station but invariably you'll have a 5 minute delay before you even get to the subway platform. (So overall, plan on at least 10 minutes from actual arrival time, probably 20 minutes from scheduled arrival time, before you get on a subway going downtown).
Subway ride depends how far down you're going. If you're working downtown in the financial district, you pretty much need to factor in at least 30 minutes from the actual arrival time (40 minutes from scheduled arrival time) at Penn Station before you get to work.
Going home is often a clusterfreak, mobs of people standing around staring at the monitors and they only announce your train 10 minutes before departure (well, if it's not late, which is often) and then another mob of people trying to jam down one small stairway to get to the train. Usually late arriving home, but not as bad as the AM (at least, not at the time I'm going home around 8pm) probably 5 minutes late on average.
wow - it sounds absolutely hellish. what's so direct about a line that is a good 10 minutes late all the time? what's with all the standing around? i'm not really familiar with penn station but i've never seen anything like what you are describing at grand central which i know well. geez. food for thought for sure. thanks for the reply. where do you live lusitan? do you do this commute daily?
I have never used it to commute, only to go into the city for fun. Most of the time it has always been on time and not too much trouble. Sadly I don't think this is the norm. Many of my friends who commute on a regular basis do complain very frequently about the train situation. I think this would happen no matter which train line you take.....
Grand Central is so much better designed. Plenty of tracks, attractive station and waiting area, nice food options, no bottleneck tunnel like the 100 year old NJ Transit / AMTRAK single-track tunnel across the Hudson River (they are finally building a second track, so maybe things will get better by 2017 when/if it's finished).
Penn Station is literally a maze of tunnels that seemed to be carved out by rats as an afterthought to Madison Square Garden above it. Again, there are plans to build a new Penn Station (in/under the old Post Office across the street) but I wouldn't count on that being done until a decade or more, if ever (they've been talking about it for at least a decade already).
Taking the train from Millburn to NY Penn is no picnic -- and it's frustrating that things are so poorly designed in what is supposed to be America's premier city. It really is sad.
Forgot to mention, one other option is to take the train to/from Hoboken/Millburn and then the PATH across to WTC and then walk downtown. It's not faster, it's not as frequent, and the walk down from WTC can be brutal in the winter (oh, and now you have the enjoyment of construction at the WTC for the next 10 years ...) but it's slightly more civilized than the NY Penn station commute.
Yes I do this commute daily. I didn't always work downtown, and while it's not worth the hassle of moving if I had to do it all over again I'd seriously look at Westchester because, for me anyway, the Metro-North to the 4/5 would be a much easier commute. Commuting in general stinks, but seemingly small differences can make a big difference over time when you're doing it 40 times a month, every month, for years and years ...
Probably a good investment to do a bunch of trial runs on any hypothetical new commute. I just try to tell it like it is, because there is so much misinformation about there ("35 minutes to NYC!"). It may be worth the sacrifice to you, but you want to go in with your eyes wide open. Good luck!
Ugh, hearing about the commute to NJ, dealing with Penn, makes me cringe. But is it worth it in the end, when you have great schools for the little ones, and a setting, that's picturesque near the south mountain reservation, for instance? Doing the commute a few times is an idea we've had as well, just to see how we'd be able to deal.
good god- why would anyone choose to live in new jersey (assuming they were of means to choose), if they were faced with this daily commute. i don't get it. i suppose it's because westchester is so expensive? family? having a hard time figuring out what makes it a more compelling choice than westchester, except perhaps price. please elaborate.
Where your extended family is can be a factor -- if your family is in PA or points south/west of NYC, it's easier to get to/from them by living in NJ. Also, not to state the obvious, but if your extended family is in NJ many people want to say in NJ for that reason.
Not everyone in NJ commutes into NYC for work -- many people work in NJ.
Of the people doing to NYC commute, some of them may have initially worked in NJ and only later switched jobs to working in NYC; or they may have worked elsewhere in Manhattan (i.e. midtown west) where the commute isn't quite as bad, and later switched to a job downtown. And in these cases, some people probably decided to suck it up and stay put rather than go through the hassle of moving, once your family settles in it becomes harder to pick up and move.
There are many reasons people end up where they're at, not all of them are planned. And inertia can be a factor preventing someone from picking up and moving. But the way NJ taxes and political corruption are getting out of control, that may end up being the tipping point for many people.
Wow - sounds dreadful. Thanks for your brutal honesty about commuter life in New Jersey. Doesn't seem like something I'd wish on my worst enemy
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