Commuting from UES to Downtown

[waitlisted212]

there is an informal cab share that operates M-F from 7 am - 10 am at the corner of 79th and York (across from the post office). Flyers with more details are posted inside the post office.

Cabs line up there and once the car fills up with 4 people, it'll go drive down the FDR to BK Bridge exit, and make stops upon request from the Bridge all the way down Water Street to Whitehall. It's $6 a passenger. When I was living on York Ave it made my commute to Water and Wall a breeze - i could get to work in 12 minutes on some days. It's one of the best kept commuting secrets going.

highly suggestible to anyone who lives near or within walking distance of 79th and York and works downtown. Much better than taking the 4,5 to Fulton, Wall, et. al. during rush hour from 86th. As easy and direct as subway commute is, doing that 5 days a week will still have you wanting to rip out your hair. It's extremely overcrowded to the point where the 86th Street platform is outright dangerous to wait on, and even if MTA.INFO has "good service" as the status, you'll have to expect at the very least - slight delays- every morning. The train crawls from 42nd street down to Brooklyn Bridge. If you're anywhere near 79th and York and work downtown anywhere between the Brooklyn Bridge down to the Bowling Green stop, do yourself a favor and pay the $6 for the cab share. It'll add years to your life. On paper the subway commute from 86th down to say Fulton should be like 25 minutes but in reality it's really 45 to upwards of an hour. For $6 you could turn that into 12-20 minutes

[OyCrumbler]

To the OP, have you considered living in New Jersey off the PATH train?

Originally Posted by SeventhFloor

Find something near the Q

That could be good advice--he'll likely have to do a transfer, but it might be a simple across the platform transfer with the R/W at Union Square or one with some walking at Canal.

Originally Posted by Kefir King

Furious last night around 10PM after theater: "All N Q R W trains are suspended in Manhattan." No reasons given just "N Q R W trains suspended."
LIttle by little even the new Q-train is being sucked into the morass.
So then a jillion people had to Shuttle to Grand Central and onto the sardine packed 4,5,6.The 4 was running local. Pity those trying to get to Queens.

The extension is great and necessary, but it's still part of a system that's using antiquated signaling. It's not going to be immune from that issue.