Commuting times from Livingston, Maplewood South Orange NJ (Harrison: houses, buses)
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Dear local people,
Can you inform me about differences in commuting times to Manhattan, from these Essex cities? I am specially interested in transit and not driving. I've read that partial driving is not a real option because of parking problems. Or do you have good Park and Ride ideas? Thank you all
K
I find it far easier to commute to Manhattan via train. IMO, the traffic situation along the NYC bound routes (and parking in NYC) are far worse than dealing with the parking issue at the train stations. You also factor in wear and tear, gas, tolls, and risk (accidents etc) into the equation.
But as always, YMMV given your location route and destination.
In my case, I was commuting from the end of the morris-essex line into NYC penn station and walking a few blocks to work. Door to door was about under 2 hours (depending). I personally would rather do 2 hours by train than 1 hour by car in NYC bound traffic. You relax, you nap, relax, have your breakfast, do some work...etc... it may be longer but it is was an easier commute. I had a parking pass or would simply catch a ride with my neighbor headed in the direction of the train station. Other's use the local bus companies... but they are subject to traffic. I don't have experience with them as my job at the time was close to Penn station.
Definitely Maplewood/SO would be a quicker commute. They are on the Midtown Direct Line. Depending on where you work in the city it is about an average door to door. Personally I love the area, lived there for ten years. Great neighbors, a lot to do, and beautiful houses.
Livingston you can take a jitney to the train or a bus. The bus commute from what I hear of friends is horrid, never a good story.
The #77 bus wasn't terrible (except Friday evenings) a couple of years ago but it sounds like it is now.
Driving to transit is an option from parts of Livingston and South Orange (the parts nearer I-280), you can drive to Harrison PATH station which has quite a few lots. It can be a tough ride during the rush but if you keep irregular hours it has the advantage of frequent service. Maplewood and South Orange have jitneys to their respective train stations; check the towns' web sites for routes and cost. Livingston has the park-and-ride jitney to South Orange.
The Orange train station has daily parking; sometimes it fills up early and sometimes it never fills up at all, there seems to be no rhyme or reason. South Orange has daily parking too but I think if you're not taking the first train of the day it's usually full.
77 bus from livingston has a horrible reputation. the commute from south orange/maplewood is fine, they both have train stations with direct nyc service and jitneys to the stations. the 107 express bus goes from south orange down irvington avenue, making a stop in maplewood to port authority. there are other buses as well.
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