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Fairlawn has 2 train stations that go to Hoboken - the Radburn and Broadway stops are about a 30min ride to Hoboken. Since you'll be leaving so early in morning you should be able to get a seat.
Drive to a Fairlawn station: 10min (incl park/walk/wait)
Train to Hoboken: 30min
PATH to WTC: 20min (incl walk/wait)
WTC to A,C,2,3,R; 10min (incl walk/wait)
Subway to Bklyn: 10min?
Walk to work: 5min
Total = 1:25 - 1:30 (realistic estimate)
Radburn to Hoboken express is 30 minutes, local is 40 minutes. Express trains are packed and the first one is at 7:10 am which would be too late for the OP. I would give these realistic estimates:
Drive to a Fairlawn station: 10min (incl park/walk/wait)
Train to Hoboken: 40 min
PATH to WTC: 25 min (incl walk/wait)
WTC to A,C,2,3,R; 10 min (incl walk/wait)
Subway to Bklyn: 10 min?
Walk to work: 10 min
Total: 95 minutes or about an hour and a half at the very least.
But you have to realize that this you will be relying on the public transportation from three different transit agencies with different ticketing options. And the tri state is not exactly Japan or Switzerland. As is typical for US mass transit, all of these agencies are short on budget, overcrowded during rush hour and have plenty of deferred maintenance. I would count on a delay somewhere at least once a week. In summary, in my opinion, a commute like that every day would be nightmare that would seriously degrade your quality of life.
What about buses from all these places? Also does anyone know what the traffic is like to Harrison station at 6am? If my calculations for Livingston are accurate, at that hour it would be about 20 mins to Harrison plus parking and boarding PATH (lets say 15 min), PATH 20min and allowing 20 mins to get to Borough hall = 1h15 min. PATH is fairly dependable and 2/3 trains are too.
Another idea is the 6:25 Lakeland bus out of Summit that gets to PA by 7:05/7:10 (my friend that lives in N.Providence takes it daily to get to WTC and says it rarely hits traffic before 7am) and then 30 min to downtown bk by subway. So that's 1h15 as well if all goes well.
Also re DefiantNJ's estimates - there's no walking from subway to work. The station is literally right by my building's entrance so that cuts your estimate to 1h25 min from Fair Lawn (same from Cranford as the train times are about same).
It would take me a little over an hour from where I live now to get to my kids in case of an emergency. My ILs live in Kinnelon and Wayne and my husband will be 45m-1h drive away from the kids. I'm ok with 1.5 hours to provide a better life for my kids.
As long as you know about it.
It's a little cold for a visit right now, the ice cream store is closed (but Rock n Joe's is still open!) and inventory is down until school gets out but I recommend Lidia's Cuban if you bring the kids and Pairings or A Toute Heure for dinner if you don't. And check any houses you do find against the flood zone maps. Floods don't happen often but when they do it can be bad.
I just don't understand the motivation for these kinds of commutes! Yikes!
At some point you really have to ask yourself why you're both working. The way it sounds is that if you live near your job, hubby gets 4 hours commuting. Live near hubby's job, wife gets 3-4 hours of commuting (actual, real life door to door commute to brooklyn from NJ). Wouldn't you rather just live more modestly and see your kids 4 more hours a day?
I'm not saying the wife should quit, just that one spouse should. Or at least find a job closer to home, even if that job pays 50% of what that person currently makes. I mean seriously, these kinds of commutes are 20 hours a week!!! Why not live life and forget about maximizing the amount of green paper you earn!
We are in Livingston and my husband works downtown. He uses PATH and his commute is 1h-1h:15min, but his office is about 15min walk from WTC. I think your plan is realistic if aftercare is open until 6pm, but you will definitely need a solid back-up plan in case of train delays, traffic accidents etc. What's the plan for morning drop offs? Schools in Livingston start at 8am and there is no before care (can drop off as early as 7:30am).
I just don't understand the motivation for these kinds of commutes! Yikes!
At some point you really have to ask yourself why you're both working. The way it sounds is that if you live near your job, hubby gets 4 hours commuting. Live near hubby's job, wife gets 3-4 hours of commuting (actual, real life door to door commute to brooklyn from NJ). Wouldn't you rather just live more modestly and see your kids 4 more hours a day?
I'm not saying the wife should quit, just that one spouse should. Or at least find a job closer to home, even if that job pays 50% of what that person currently makes. I mean seriously, these kinds of commutes are 20 hours a week!!! Why not live life and forget about maximizing the amount of green paper you earn!
I agree with a lot of this, not necessarily quitting but at least compromising and one person switching jobs. The thing is, if your budget for a house isn't much over $600K I'd have to ask myself why on earth I'm putting up with that kind of nightmare commute on either side since it doesn't look like you're getting much in the way of financial compensation for it (at least not for around here--if you're Wall Street front office, lawyer at a white shoe firm, sure maybe, but otherwise?). Not to mention the $ you'll spend just doing the commute--you'll be paying for a monthly NJ Transit, PATH and subway pass and only a fraction of that will be pre-tax. Your husband will be paying for gas and vehicle wear/tear and maintenance and insurance. Plus add on the time and maintenance costs for a house and yard?!?! Yikes. These sorts of commutes only make sense for people earning A LOT of money (and IMO they don't even make sense then, but I guess it's more justifiable). The overarching point is that with a commute like that, you won't be maximizing green paper at all, so unless you're so in love with your job you can't imagine doing anything else anywhere else, I'd say one of you needs to make a compromise on location for the sake of the kids...
I just don't understand the motivation for these kinds of commutes! Yikes!
At some point you really have to ask yourself why you're both working. The way it sounds is that if you live near your job, hubby gets 4 hours commuting. Live near hubby's job, wife gets 3-4 hours of commuting (actual, real life door to door commute to brooklyn from NJ). Wouldn't you rather just live more modestly and see your kids 4 more hours a day?
I'm not saying the wife should quit, just that one spouse should. Or at least find a job closer to home, even if that job pays 50% of what that person currently makes. I mean seriously, these kinds of commutes are 20 hours a week!!! Why not live life and forget about maximizing the amount of green paper you earn!
We don't actually make all that much. If I could afford to quit or even take less $, I'd do it. However we need both jobs. I've been at my job for 14 years and I highly doubt I can get the flexibility and benefits that I get here anywhere else. I'm not even sure I'd get another job as specialized as my job is.
Do other people commute 10 min to work? Everyone I know does an hour on the subway daily each way. Is that not the norm? What's the diff b/w 2hrs a day or 3 in commute? I mean even if we both worked in the city we'd be doing 2-3 hrs on the subway per day.
I agree with a lot of this, not necessarily quitting but at least compromising and one person switching jobs. The thing is, if your budget for a house isn't much over $600K I'd have to ask myself why on earth I'm putting up with that kind of nightmare commute on either side since it doesn't look like you're getting much in the way of financial compensation for it (at least not for around here). Not to mention the $ you'll spend just doing the commute--you'll be paying for a monthly NJ Transit, PATH and subway pass and only a fraction of that will be pre-tax. Your husband will be paying for gas and vehicle wear/tear and maintenance and insurance. Plus add on the time and maintenance costs for a house and yard?!?! Yikes. These sorts of commutes only make sense for people earning A LOT of money (and IMO they don't even make sense then, but I guess it's more justifiable). The overarching point is that with a commute like that, you won't be maximizing green paper at all, so unless you're so in love with your job you can't imagine doing anything else anywhere else, I'd say one of you needs to make a compromise on location for the sake of the kids...
My husband is currently spending 900/month on his commute (gas and tolls) and non of it is pre-tax as it's driving. I'm not counting the wear on car. He's also getting NYC resident tax (500/mo out of his check)...so really moving to Jersey would save us $900/mo just in commute and tax (counting $500 for my commute). The kids do lots of activities which costs a lot here in bk (each kid 1k/mo in activities plus daycare and afterschool). The reason for 600 budget is that our place is paid off here and I don't want to get into another mortgage w/ 12k/ year property tax. So that's really all of it. My skills are not all that marketable in jersey. I doubt I'd get another job.
We are in Livingston and my husband works downtown. He uses PATH and his commute is 1h-1h:15min, but his office is about 15min walk from WTC. I think your plan is realistic if aftercare is open until 6pm, but you will definitely need a solid back-up plan in case of train delays, traffic accidents etc. What's the plan for morning drop offs? Schools in Livingston start at 8am and there is no before care (can drop off as early as 7:30am).
My husband drops them off. He leaves for work at 9. So that's not a problem. That's how we do it now. I was thinking I'd pay for after care till 6:30 in case of delay and if it's a crazy delay, husband can leave work early and get them. He normally leaves work at 6 but it's flexible.
I'd leave at 6 and hopefully be at work by 8...head back at 4 and be back on a good day by 5:40ish/bad day 6:30. I mean transportation delays happen here bk too. I got stuck for 2.5 hrs twice this week. It is what it is.
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