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I agree with everyone else that the flexible work schedule will be your saving grace. Commuting will be less stressful. The down side is that rush hour has more frequent service as well as express options that you don't get in non-rush.
As already noted, major transportation projects are coming down the pike over the next decade or so. I think flex hours and more remote work situations are going to become more the norm as construction makes things worse before they get better.
Also, if I get on the train in towns like Summit, Montclair etc., am I standing on them from the get go? Same question on the PATH from JC/Newport/Weehawken?
No PATH from Weehawken; that's a bus or ferry commute. The ferries are nice but expensive, and you get a seat. Forget about a seat on PATH from downtown JC; they fill up at Journal Square. Trains from Summit should have seats, many originate there. I don't know if the expresses have seats however, as that's their next-to-last stop. If you go off-rush you should be able to get a seat on NJ Transit; I take a 9am from South Orange and don't have a problem (PATH is still packed at this hour)
Glen Ridge has a jitney that loops through to the train station.
7:25am - grab jitney within a block of house
7:40 - train departure
8:25 - Penn arrival (schedule is 8:20)
8:30 - Walk through the maze that is Penn Station to the 1 train
8:40 - arrive at office (I am one stop short of Columbus circle)
Total door to door is 1.15 min. This could be quicker if you could walk to a station. Do NOT live in Montclair if you are not within walking distance to the stations, as parking is very difficult to get. If in Monclair, add 3 minutes to Bay Station station, another 3 minutes to Walnut Station, etc. Montclair has 5 stations past Glen Ridge.
The trains home in the evening are 5-10 min quicker, rarely with delays
I will say though - the fact that you are home schooling makes this an interesting search. Rarely do you see people comingling Bloomfield with GR and Summit. Renting is also pretty limited. Although the house you may rent in Montclair for $5k, if you owned it, your mortgage would be $3k and your taxes would be $2k, so it actually makes more sense to rent in high-tax towns.
Montclair and Bloomfield have DeCamp bus lines. Montclair's line runs up and down Grove St. It picks you up on every other corner on the fly. Bloomfield has another line that runs through Broad Street. If you live in Glen Ridge you could easily walk westwards a couple blocks to the Grove St bus line, or a couple blocks east to the Broad St line.
Rough numbers on bus time travel depending on where you grab the bus (note the sensitivity with peak traffic).
6 am departure - 30 min to Penn
6:30 am - 35 min
7:00 am - 40 min
7:30 - 50 min
8:00 - 1 hr +
6pm departure from penn - 50 min
6:30pm - 45 min
7 pm - 40 min
7:30 - 35 min
8pm and later - 30 min
You will likely be within a 10 min walk to a bus stop, then need 15+ minutes to transfer and take a subway to columbus circle.
First, there's a lot of misinformation and assumption you have there. The OP mentioned RENTING.
So toss the house and yard thought or any home value real estate ideas.
The reason Metro North is better because they don't hike their rates as crazy as NJT has and there is hardly any congestion or problems.
Tell me which service has the most congestion and delays? Metro North or NJ Transit.
The Monclair line is one of the busiest train line because of college students.
The fares depend on how far you live and in Westchester you can get less than $200/month if he rents closer like in Yonkers.
Once you get down to GCT, you walk right over to the S train which is ALWAYS going to be there and take people over to the West side to TimeSquare for the 1/9 train up to Columbus Circle.
I know many people who take the Metro North and they hardly ever have problems compare to coming into Penn Station.
For the OP, regardless what some people here will say. Your best bet is to come down to NYC and investigate these train lines during rush hour and get a real feel.
Never rule out any options until you take the real world test.
Do not forget the NY Penn Station is destined for major major delay within 10 years. There's only less than 15 years to go before they must shutdown the tunnel for extensive repairs.
(1) Toss the house and the yard? What are you talking about?
Yeah, the OP says he's looking into rentals...and he is ALSO the one that specifically mentioned that he is looking for "House, yard....that kind of thing"; a safe, family-oriented suburb (with JC/Hoboken as a 'Plan B'). Those are his words, not mine. And nobody mentioned anything about "home value real estate ideas".
(2) Did you miss the part where his budget is up to $5,500? He's looking to rent not only in the usual North Jersey, Nice Safe Suburbs with Charming Walkable Downtowns, he's even considering places like Greenwich. What makes you think he's gonna want to rent anyplace like Yonkers? In Westchester, he's probably going to prefer the likes of Scarsdale, Eastchester, Larchmont, etc. etc., maybe Pelham. In which case, the commute time and commute cost is not going to be any faster or cheaper compared to the likes of Maplewood, South Orange, Montclair, and Glen Ridge, in NJ...in some case, the Westchester commute will be more expensive, and will take longer.
You can find NJ Transit and Metro-North time tables and fares in about 2 seconds. Are you really going to claim something different?
(3) I never advised the OP to rule anything out. I was simply refuting your claim that Metro-North is an inherently better choice, particularly when the OP will be working on the West Side. Go do a search on the Westchester forum. Plenty of folks pissing & moaning about their Metro-North commutes as well. Or come and talk to my cranky coworkers that have to take Metro-North, particularly the ones that have to take the New Haven line. Metro-North is not immune to snow storms, power outages, mechanical issues, signal problems, delays, crowding, congestion, old infrastructure, etc. etc.
I'm not saying NJ Transit is anywhere near perfect, or even desirable...like I said...I'm no big fan. But Metro-North is also the same big ol' bag of crap as well, just coming from the other direction. This is what commuting into Manhattan means...it doesn't matter if you're coming from Westchester County, or even from just one of the other neighboring boroughs. Come, also, talk to my cranky coworkers who only have to take a subway from parts of Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn...some of them are so fed up, they are just driving into Manhattan.
Metro-North "hardly ever have problems". M'kay. That's why Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the MTA this summer and wants to spend billions towards improvements/repairs for Metro-North.
(4) In NJ, you also have the PATH and/or commuter bus lines as possible backup options, if NJ Transit is having problems on any given day. There are also ferry options. Everyone in NJ has 2 or 3 alternative commute backup options, in addition to their main method. There is no equivalent of a PATH train, or DeCamp/Lakeland/Community Coach/Academy commuter bus lines in Westchester.
(5) As for Grand Central, I know all about it. I commuted through there for years. You said it yourself...it's 2 subways to get back and forth from Grand Central to Columbus Circle. As for the Shuttle (or the 'S train'), yeah, there will always be one waiting on the platform. You'll also probably not be able to shove your way on to that one, because in addition to the regular commuters, you'll be competing with all the tourists wanting to go to Times Square. So you'll have to wait for a 2nd one to pull in. And on Wednesdays, in addition to all those schleps, you also have the people funneling in from points east and north, who are going out to the Theater District to get their Matinee Wednesday deals on.
Penn Station is already on the West Side, i.e, it's only 1 subway to Columbus Circle. Also, there is no "1/9" train, unless you want to travel back in time, so if you're gonna harp on "misinformation", maybe don't say things like "1/9 train".
(1) Toss the house and the yard? What are you talking about?
Yeah, the OP says he's looking into rentals...and he is ALSO the one that specifically mentioned that he is looking for "House, yard....that kind of thing"; a safe, family-oriented suburb (with JC/Hoboken as a 'Plan B'). Those are his words, not mine. And nobody mentioned anything about "home value real estate ideas".
(2) Did you miss the part where his budget is up to $5,500? He's looking to rent not only in the usual North Jersey, Nice Safe Suburbs with Charming Walkable Downtowns, he's even considering places like Greenwich. What makes you think he's gonna want to rent anyplace like Yonkers? In Westchester, he's probably going to prefer the likes of Scarsdale, Eastchester, Larchmont, etc. etc., maybe Pelham. In which case, the commute time and commute cost is not going to be any faster or cheaper compared to the likes of Maplewood, South Orange, Montclair, and Glen Ridge, in NJ...in some case, the Westchester commute will be more expensive, and will take longer.
You can find NJ Transit and Metro-North time tables and fares in about 2 seconds. Are you really going to claim something different?
(3) I never advised the OP to rule anything out. I was simply refuting your claim that Metro-North is an inherently better choice, particularly when the OP will be working on the West Side. Go do a search on the Westchester forum. Plenty of folks pissing & moaning about their Metro-North commutes as well. Or come and talk to my cranky coworkers that have to take Metro-North, particularly the ones that have to take the New Haven line. Metro-North is not immune to snow storms, power outages, mechanical issues, signal problems, delays, crowding, congestion, old infrastructure, etc. etc.
I'm not saying NJ Transit is anywhere near perfect, or even desirable...like I said...I'm no big fan. But Metro-North is also the same big ol' bag of crap as well, just coming from the other direction. This is what commuting into Manhattan means...it doesn't matter if you're coming from Westchester County, or even from just one of the other neighboring boroughs. Come, also, talk to my cranky coworkers who only have to take a subway from parts of Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn...some of them are so fed up, they are just driving into Manhattan.
Metro-North "hardly ever have problems". M'kay. That's why Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the MTA this summer and wants to spend billions towards improvements/repairs for Metro-North.
(4) In NJ, you also have the PATH and/or commuter bus lines as possible backup options, if NJ Transit is having problems on any given day. There are also ferry options. Everyone in NJ has 2 or 3 alternative commute backup options, in addition to their main method. There is no equivalent of a PATH train, or DeCamp/Lakeland/Community Coach/Academy commuter bus lines in Westchester.
(5) As for Grand Central, I know all about it. I commuted through there for years. You said it yourself...it's 2 subways to get back and forth from Grand Central to Columbus Circle. As for the Shuttle (or the 'S train'), yeah, there will always be one waiting on the platform. You'll also probably not be able to shove your way on to that one, because in addition to the regular commuters, you'll be competing with all the tourists wanting to go to Times Square. So you'll have to wait for a 2nd one to pull in. And on Wednesdays, in addition to all those schleps, you also have the people funneling in from points east and north, who are going out to the Theater District to get their Matinee Wednesday deals on.
Penn Station is already on the West Side, i.e, it's only 1 subway to Columbus Circle. Also, there is no "1/9" train, unless you want to travel back in time, so if you're gonna harp on "misinformation", maybe don't say things like "1/9 train".
This post made me tired....and it made me realize that no matter what direction I come in from, it's all a crapshoot. Thanks for the information though.
This post made me tired....and it made me realize that no matter what direction I come in from, it's all a crapshoot. Thanks for the information though.
This post made me tired....and it made me realize that no matter what direction I come in from, it's all a crapshoot. Thanks for the information though.
Hey, at least your budget's good. You should see what we do to people who come in with unrealistic budgets. I think you'll be able to find a place in NJ meeting your needs, and your commute will only suck somewhat. Best you can do.
Hey, at least your budget's good. You should see what we do to people who come in with unrealistic budgets. I think you'll be able to find a place in NJ meeting your needs, and your commute will only suck somewhat. Best you can do.
If you don't have a preference in NJ vs NY and your home schooling, and renting, I would really think hard about some of these towns. Your short list is the upper crust with top schools and people pay 20k plus in tax (in NJ) and 30k plus (Westchester) you're not utilizing schools and not paying taxes. I lived in both Scarsdale and Glen Ridge. Both have great schools. GR has a 40 min train that is 45 min 3x a week, on time once a week, and 10 minutes late once a week. Scarsdale is a 30-35 min train on schedule everyday and sometime 5 minutes delayed. One goes into a crap Penn station with unorganized gates and another goes to a historical landmark station with much less congestion.
People treat Scarsdale Bronxville and larchmont as near seconds to Manhattan i.e. 30-100k in taxes to have the shortest train schedules to manhattan without having to pay private school tuition in NYC and NYC income tax. Towns in NJ are less in value, less in tax, and have delayed trains that run at a much slower MPH to Penn since there is congestion to cross thru tunnels into Manhattan. I.e. A train from Greenwich is 3x the distance from NYC as Glen Ridge yet is only 10 minutes longer. Sometimes it's a bit laughable.
I'm telling you this since it's seems that you have liberties in rental prices, towns/states, and are not dependent on schools.
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