Working Moms
jf198400
member
F/U NJ to NYC Commute question updated to clarify
jf198400
member
in Working Moms
Some of you ladies mentioned Union County as a nice area to live and commute into NYC.nbsp; How do you commute from there?nbsp; When I look at NJTransit schedules it looks like you have to transfer and the total train time is like 45mins.nbsp; DH needs to get into Penn Station.nbsp; If the train is going to take 45mins, it's not worth moving.nbsp; Are there other options?
His current train time is about an hour, he's at least 1520mins from penn station, and we are 30mins from the train. If the trains out of north jersey are all 45mins or more its not worth moving. DH would like to move somewhere where his commute could be 1hr door to door.
His current train time is about an hour, he's at least 1520mins from penn station, and we are 30mins from the train. If the trains out of north jersey are all 45mins or more its not worth moving. DH would like to move somewhere where his commute could be 1hr door to door.
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Re: F/U NJ to NYC Commute question updated to clarify
I would think cutting 1 hr off the travel time each way would be worth it but that is just me? 2 extra hours at home per day, 10 per week!
I lived in Westfield & I was able to walk to the train station. I worked about a 7-8 min walk from Penn Station. My commute was a little over an hour door to door. BUT I didn't have to take a subway from Penn Station and didn't have much of a commute to the train station from home since I could walk (also just a note, a lot of these stations have wait lists for parking though surrounding businesses & things will sell parking, just an additional cost to keep in mind). And yes, unless things have changed or do change in the future, the line that runs through there is diesel & therefore can't go through the tunnel, so you change in newark. Depending on the timing of your change, that can be very little time or a little wait. It was annoying to me at first but not really that bad once I was used to it.
IMO the best train station to live near is Maplewood - first express stop out of the city like 35 min or something. Nice town/area too but probably more expensive, I'm not sure.
A lot of ppl in the northern part of the state take the bus also...I'm not sure if his office is right by penn station or if port authority is an option but depending on where you live a bus could be a great option too.
Another thing I thought of about the daycare drop off situation- your H might be able to share in drop off in the morning if you find a daycare close to home/train with a shorter commute... like he could drop off at 745 and get on the 8am train if he works a 9am start time like a lot of ppl in NYC do...just a thought. Pickup is a lot harder of course, esp when you run into delays & that sort of thing.
Sorry I meant that the NJT trip time is 45mins, plus time from house to the train, and subway time from Penn Station to his office. Currently his express train on NJT is about an hour. So dropping 15mins doesn't seem worth the much higher cost of living. That's why I was asking if there are other options then the train. I don't know where Port Authority is. DH takes the subway from Penn Station to upper manhattan I think. His office is near central park.
As someone who commuted to NYC from Union County (Rahway) for 4 years, let me tell you--no place you are going to want to live is less than 45 min train ride. My train was 45 min plus 10-15 min walk on either side, and this was considered good. Towns that are closer really aren't safe. Westfield is nice, but with that transfer, it's going to be longer. If apartments are okay, Hoboken is great and a short commute, but it's not suburbia.
I think if you are coming from Philly burbs, Morris County is going to be the equivalent, which is a hour at least on the train.
Honestly, with your support system being in PA, and the tax difference, I don't think you are going to be able to make up enough time on the commute to make the move worthwhile. 30 min commute or less is very, very rare NJ to NYC.
No I don't want to live in NY b/c the drive to our families in PA would be more of a PITA.
I agree with the pps that finding a commute less than an hour will likely not put you in a very nice area. Maplewood and South Orange could be options and are not a bad commute. I live in Morristown, which I love, but it's 60 - 70 minutes by train. I was able to walk to my old office from Penn Station, which added another 10 minutes. Door to door, it was about 1 hr 40 minutes. With my new job, I need to take the subway and that adds another 20 minutes. That's a 2 hour commute one way. Luckily, I don't commute into NYC very often any more.
Another thing you need to factor in is the cost of commuting. It is EXPENSIVE! A monthly pass on NJ Transit from Morristown is $365. If you need a MetroCard on top of that, that's $112. So you're spending almost $500 a month (more if you need to pay for parking) just to get to work.
I don't get this. I live in Carlstadt, Bergen Co., not the nicest town in Bergen Co, but it's not the ghetto. My town happens to have very low taxes, i pay less than $5000. I can see the city from my front window. I would assume with traffic and such a commute would still be close to an hour, although I'd probably drive myself to secaucus and get a more direct bus. I work in East Orange, a good 20-25 min away from the city, so South Orange would be even further. What's the problem with Bergen or Hudson Co? They are on the Hudson River, you can't get any closer to the city.
I think b/c she wants to be a short drive to family north of Philly in PA.
Ok. We've been to the Please Touch Museum a couple of times in Philly, but it is a 2 hour ride, so if you're trying to do something in the middle it would be an hour. I think I'd rather be closer to work though. Your DH needs to go to work everyday, you could go down by your family once a month and they could come up by you once a month. I would think that would be plenty.
See this is exactly why I don't want to move at all. The express trains out of Trenton or Hamilton are about 60-70mins, add in time on either side of the train and there's DH's current 2hr commute. It costs $420/month for train plus $100 parking.
Then dont move! I agree with PP in the other thread that said your DH is asking a lot to expect the entire family to uproot because he wants a shorter commute time. If he wants that, then he should start looking for a job closer to home.
I would think that the number of changes you will encounter moving closer to the city far outweight the number of changes your DH will experience moving companies.
zachary happens! | little fish
I didn't read through all the responses, but it sounds like you were looking on the Trenton line, but have you looked into Coast line? DH and I lived for a few years in Matawan/Aberdeen area, and I commuted daily to NYC. The express train was about 50 min and my office was a quick subway ride from there. I think I took a 6:20am train and was at my desk by 7:30am. It does put you further away from the Philly area, but it was a really nice area, lots of nice housing right by the train station. Towns like Holmdel, Woodbridge and Old Bridge are nice, lower cost of living than the area you are looking.
To give perspective, the commute was too much for me after two years (I left the house at 6am and didn't get home until 830pm), so I convinced H to move closer to Manhattan (he was working in NJ), and we lived at the new apt buildings in Secaucus, right by the train station. My commute from that station was still about 25-30 min, and it was one stop from Penn Station. The area SUCKED though, and I would never live there with kids. We moved to the Baltimore suburbs after our yr living there.