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I took the train from south station to Providence last friday and I got suck on the train for 2 hours. the engine had died on the train and we had to be pushed from pawtucket to providence by the next train coming in.
That totally sucks, but I've had similar experiences driving to/from New Haven to Hartford on my current commute, when there's an accident, construction, or bad weather and suddenly I'm dealing with a 2-hour commute instead of an hour. It happens sometimes (maybe once a month?), but it is far from the norm. In this case, I can deal with it if it's something that happens every once in a while. How often do you experience train delays and problems like this?
He'll need to get an RI license first..........and frankly, there's not a lot of weekly hours available for experienced RN's let alone new graduates. Boston and environs will give him a wider playing field in which to search.
Of course. We're fully expecting this whole process to take several months, at least. Unfortunately, new nurses getting into the field seems to be an issue everywhere, although I totally agree that I'd think a larger city like Boston and the surrounding metro area would naturally have more options than a smaller city!
It totally sucks having everything up in the air, I like things to be settled :-) Although it's all good stuff, and exciting, too.
Highway delays are far more common than train delays between Providence and Boston.
If you want to live closer to beaches, keep in mind that MBTA goes as far south as Wickford now (although only on weekdays, no bus to the train, and it's an extra 32 minutes past Providence).
I took the train from Oak Hill in Pawtucket to Bowdoin Square; it was two hours door to door including the bus ride downtown, train ride, and subway ride from Back Bay or walk from South Station. The train has wi-fi, and I was able to get an hour of work in during the commute.
Yikes, 2 hours door to door is scary! I feel like I can only do this if we can find an apartment in Providence that is walking distance to the train station and if the job in Boston is walking distance from South Station or Back Bay. Surprisingly, many of the jobs I've seen actually have been a 10-minute walk or less (according to Google Maps anyway!) from South Station, which is nice, but I haven't seen LOADS of (affordable) apartments within a 10-15 minute walk of the Providence station, although friends in the area assure me there should be at least some. I do like the idea of being able to actually use the commute time on the train, even if it's just to doze or read - seems very preferable to the hour driving commute I have now.
I really appreciate everyone's input. It's good to know this is doable, even though it isn't exactly the most convenient commute. I am hoping that if things work out with a job in Boston, eventually we'll move a bit closer to the city to cut down on this a little. Or maybe I'll hate it and we'll decide to just stay in RI, and I'll re-focus on getting work in Providence. Then there's the wild card of when we start having kids in a couple more years... who wants to juggle an hour commute with kids in daycare, school, etc.?
Also, Mansfield is a bit too far from the beach for us! We are spoiled living about a 5 minute drive from Long Island Sound right now, and wouldn't want to be more than a 15-20 minute drive from the ocean, max
If you live in Providence, you will be more than a 20-minute drive from the ocean. Even beach access on the Bay (e.g., in Warwick) will be over a 20 minute drive.
Yikes, 2 hours door to door is scary! I feel like I can only do this if we can find an apartment in Providence that is walking distance to the train station and if the job in Boston is walking distance from South Station or Back Bay. Surprisingly, many of the jobs I've seen actually have been a 10-minute walk or less (according to Google Maps anyway!) from South Station, which is nice, but I haven't seen LOADS of (affordable) apartments within a 10-15 minute walk of the Providence station, although friends in the area assure me there should be at least some. I do like the idea of being able to actually use the commute time on the train, even if it's just to doze or read - seems very preferable to the hour driving commute I have now.
I really appreciate everyone's input. It's good to know this is doable, even though it isn't exactly the most convenient commute. I am hoping that if things work out with a job in Boston, eventually we'll move a bit closer to the city to cut down on this a little. Or maybe I'll hate it and we'll decide to just stay in RI, and I'll re-focus on getting work in Providence. Then there's the wild card of when we start having kids in a couple more years... who wants to juggle an hour commute with kids in daycare, school, etc.?
It sounds like you have a good understanding of the situation and the reasonable limitations.
I commuted from Warwick, RI to Boston for a stretch a few years back. I took the train most of the time and actually enjoyed it. I used the time reading or snoozing or listening to music. It was completely doable. I preferred to take the train from Providence, but I was pretty broke at the time, so to save money I often ended up driving to S. Attleboro and parking there.
There were times I had to drive a little further - mostly, when I could not afford a monthly commuter rail pass. (My employer at the time was no help with this.) I was able to ease the pain of driving somewhat by driving to the Quincy Adams station on the Red Line, and parking in the big garage there. It worked, but the commuter rail was always nicer. You still sit in a lot of traffic on the way to Quincy Adams, even though it is well outside the city.
It was nice that my employer was a short walk from South Station, but I could have handled other parts of the city just fine, too. Boston proper isn't that large and the T is reliable enough.
However, all of this was made manageable by not having children. I'm just sticking my toe into job hunting now and the many Boston jobs my childless self would have jumped at are not really an option today. Leaving my children for an extra couple hours per day above and beyond the normal commute..I'm not okay with that unless I find I have no choice. (Though it may come to that...the RI job market is pretty anemic for just about every field.) Plus, most daycares have an upper limit on how many hours per day you can leave them, and those hours don't account for a super-long commute! So once the time for kids comes, you will want to work close to home, or have your husband working close to home.
But until then....your free time is your own, and there are worse things to do with it than commute on the train to a great city for a better job, IMO
My husband is about to finish nursing school (RN/BSN) at the end of this month. He has basically no preferences when it comes to jobs - as long as he can pay the bills and have time to go fishing, he will be happy. So of course he'll be looking into the hospitals in Providence, but would probably be just as happy working at a nursing home or anything in between.... so he'll have good opportunities in a city, but could also find something in a suburban or rural area. My work situation is a bit more limited to cities.
Boston area union nurse positions pay around $70 an hour plus bennies while RI union nurse positions pay around $45 an hour plus bennies. I know nurses that work in Boston on a 3 day schedule & commute to RI or SE MA (Bridgewater is nice) so there is less commute time. Just throwing that into the mix for you. Many RIers work in MA for the pay.
Boston area union nurse positions pay around $70 an hour plus bennies while RI union nurse positions pay around $45 an hour plus bennies. I know nurses that work in Boston on a 3 day schedule & commute to RI or SE MA (Bridgewater is nice) so there is less commute time. Just throwing that into the mix for you. Many RIers work in MA for the pay.
Not an easy thing to be a nurse (RN) living in RI and working in BOS or living in MA. They often are "on call" and they do get called with maybe an hour's notice. RI nurses (that is RNs) can make the same amount per week or month just by working some overtime or a special shift, or holidays, anywhere. Nursing is a very demanding job and an extra 3 hrs. a day commuting is brutal after a 12 hr. shift.
Well I've been doing the commute for a while now and it never is really wholy tolerable or intolerable.
I think it would make for a more convivial ride were there a proper bar car on the afternoon trains. Doesn't have to be a gay bar car, though.
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