Commute Times North Shore to South Boston? (Lynn, Marblehead: house, school)

[jpml]

My family is moving to the North Shore of Boston (indirectly) from California. Some of the communities we are looking at are Lynnfield, Wenham, and Marblehead (because our sources have told us we would like the QOL in those towns and their school scores look very good), and their surrounding towns. We're looking to spend around $700k for a house either with a nice yard or near the beach.

Does anyone have commentary on the commute times into South Boston (world trade center) from those places? Both train and driving, but particularly, driving, and at rush hour.

Any other commentary on those three towns and their surrounding areas would also be much appreciated.

[ChunkyMonkey]

You should check out mbta.com and put in the origin and destination. It will provide you with detailed times. It will be quite a long commute as all North Shore trains arrive at North Station whereas the South Boston is accessible via Silver Line, so you'll have to switch to the orange line and then to red line to get to south station for the Silver Line. You should look into South Shore communities if commute is of concern. Driving is no better as you'll have to deal with the nightmare of 128 and I-93 and the tunnels, not to mention the headache of parking. Good luck.

[jpml]

Originally Posted by ChunkyMonkey

You should check out mbta.com and put in the origin and destination. It will provide you with detailed times. It will be quite a long commute as all North Shore trains arrive at North Station whereas the South Boston is accessible via Silver Line, so you'll have to switch to the orange line and then to red line to get to south station for the Silver Line. You should look into South Shore communities if commute is of concern. Driving is no better as you'll have to deal with the nightmare of 128 and I-93 and the tunnels, not to mention the headache of parking. Good luck.

Ah thank you, but I should have mentioned that I must live on the North Shore because my spouse will be commuting to Manchester-by-the-Sea.

Parking won't be an issue. The switching of train-lines will be.

Just how bad is 93/128 at 8am? I'm from Los Angeles, so traffic doesn't scare me, but if it's 2 hours from Wenham and only 1 hour from Lynnfield, I'd love to know that.

[ChunkyMonkey]

Since you're from L.A. it won't bother you then. I-93/128 is usually a bottleneck along with Rte 1. You'll also have bottlenecks around the tunnel. If you don't mind paying the $3 toll, you can go down Rte 1 which then merges into the tunnel and avoid all that I-93 cloverleaf mess. Driving will probably be faster but more stressful, good luck.

[momoffive]

Originally Posted by jpml

Ah thank you, but I should have mentioned that I must live on the North Shore because my spouse will be commuting to Manchester-by-the-Sea.

Parking won't be an issue. The switching of train-lines will be.

Just how bad is 93/128 at 8am? I'm from Los Angeles, so traffic doesn't scare me, but if it's 2 hours from Wenham and only 1 hour from Lynnfield, I'd love to know that.

i pm'd you.

[Nanseev]

Why not just live in Manchester? It is just as nice as the other communities that you've mentioned....you have a beach in the summer with local access/parking, and they have a train station, and you could save your spouse from having to commute.

I'm pretty sure $700k could get you something in Manchester...maybe not the elite communities, but I think you could get something decent.

[jpml]

Manchester is definitely a possibility. Any idea how long by car to South Boston, though?