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Hi,
I live in Hackensack (by the high school) and am considering a 9-6 job in NYC in the Flatiron district.
I really know nothing about the public transportation here - I only just recently moved here. Is it better to take the 163 or 162 into the city, or should I take the train from Essex or Anderson street? Are the buses actually reliable in the morning or do they get stuck in the tunnel?
I'm also willing to drive 20-30mins somewhere else and park (is Secaucus an option or will it be full by 8:15amish?) if that would be easier - I don't care about the cost for parking.
Train commute is expensive while bus commute is cheap. If you are parking at the train station that will be extra.
Trains are more or less on time both from/to NYC. One caveat is that while coming back from NYC, if you miss a connection at Secaucus you will end up spending a lot of time waiting for the next train. So check the schedule.
Bus commute into the city during peak hours is pretty bad. You have to bake in an extra 30 mins on average due to traffic in the tunnel. Coming back from the city is usually not a problem. There are traffic delays once in a while but it is nothing compared to the morning commute.
Ideally you can take the train to go to the city and take the bus while coming back. If this is not possible, you have to pick your poison. May be try each for a month and see what fits your needs?
A couple of my coworkers live in Hackensack and they take the bus because they don't have to drive to the train station; bus stops are everywhere. Riding the train is definitely more pleasant but the bus wins out for convenience. Just don't try taking the bus into NYC when they don't have the designated bus lanes going into the Lincoln Tunnel in the morning; it'll take forever.
The train is a smoother and faster ride, but it's very expensive. And it doesn't run very late at night.
The 162 only runs during morning and evening rush hour. It's an express bus, so you'll miss going through a bunch of towns.
The 163 is the bus I always take. It runs from about 5am-1:30am. They have both local and express buses; the express buses fill up quickly.
The 175 goes to the George Washington Bridge Terminal in Washington Heights.
All the buses tend to sit in traffic during rush hour. The 162/163 morning buses slow down when they're heading towards Route 495, around 9am-11am (sometimes earlier or later). There's a bus lane that helps traffic flow a little better, but that ends at 10am, and then the buses join the regular population and that slows things down even more. There have been times when my morning commute has been taken close to 2.5 hours due to really bad traffic. So always leave a lot of room for commute time.
Hope this helps! Good luck to you!
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