NYC Super-Commuters

https://fortune.com/2023/03/05/nyc-work ... ffice/amp/

So who has or had a super-commute? In the early 90's (yes, we had color TV and rudimentary cell phones lol) I commuted from the UPPER Upper Harlem Line in Patterson, NY. I'd have to catch a train before 6 to make it in by 8, and it usually included a transfer in Brewster North (now Southeast). I'd read the NY Times on the way in, and the Wall St. Journal on the way home. Back when newspapers were print lol.

...
In Wilton, a small Connecticut farming town, Zach Kaminsky is up at 5:30 a.m., pouring himself a mug while watching NBC News. The 24-year-old PR account executive travels by train and multiple subway lines to his lower Manhattan office—45 miles as the crow flies, but it takes two hours and 15 minutes door-to-door.

In Neptune, a Jersey Shore township, Cathleen Crandall starts her car around 6:30 a.m. to head to the train. A senior legal assistant, the 45-year-old commutes to the office of the mutual fund group she works for in the city via NJTransit. It usually takes two and a half hours total, but she says these days “it’s a crap shoot.”

In Mahopac, a hamlet of fewer than 9,000 people in New York’s Putnam County, product marketing lead Chris Vennard wakes his two teenage children, makes them breakfast, and drops them at school before leaving for midtown Manhattan. “It takes an hour 45 no matter which way I cut it,” Vennard, 47, says.
...

For about 20 years I commuted from High Bridge, NJ to the office in Newark, NJ.
(1) About 30 minute drive from home in Lebanon Township, NJ to High Bridge Station (10 minute cushion time in case drive to station was delayed by a farm tractor ahead or whatever)
(2) 1 hour and 22 minutes on train to Newark Penn Station
(3) 10 to 15 minute walk (nice weather) (inclement weather Lightrail) to office building
(4) 5 minutes elevator to office floor.
Total elapsed one way time 2 hours, 10 minutes
The trip home was about 2 hours if I got the express train; the 50 minutes earlier local train which I sometimes able to take home was 15 minutes longer on the train. Driving to/from the office in Newark from Lebanon Township is about an hour and 40 minutes if no accidents, etc. cause a traffic jam.
For the about 20 years before that, bus from midtown Bayonne, NJ to Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ and PATH train to Newark Penn Station and similar walk to office. About 1 hour and 10 to 20 minutes each way. Driving from Bayonne to the office was about 50 to 60 minutes.
Driving from Lebanon Township to the office in Newark about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Official office work hours were 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., half-hour lunch for 40 hour work week, though typically I worked until about 5:15 p.m.

In my PRR days at 26 Broadway, New York (1959-60 and 1964-66) a co-worker who transferred from Philadelphia continued to live in Levittown (PA), drove to Trenton, and took No. 22, the Manhattan Limited, to Newark nonstop, then H&M to Hudson Terminal; going home he took a clocker at Newark which stopped only at Princeton Jct. before Trenton, always sitting in the first car so the GG1 would wake him up when it whistled for the one remaining grade crossing between Princeton Jct. and Trenton. There were so many commuters from Trenton that on mornings when No. 22 was late they would run a "makeup" of three MP54E6 MUs to Newark and New York only -- they did a steady 80 the whole way. Later, No. 22 ran late so often they added the "makeup" to the timetable as a regular train. No doubt the overnight coach passengers on No. 22 were relieved not to be invaded by a troop of commuters getting on at Trenton at that ungodly hour.

I was told about another employee who was legendary for commuting to NYP from Wilmington for years rather than move to New York.

I used to drive 9 miles from Spotsylvania, Va., to Fredericksburg, walk to the station, ride VRE for about an hour and a quarter, walk to a bus stop, ride a bus for about 25 min., elapsed time 2 and a half hours or more. Some commuters drove from Richmond to Fredericksburg, about 40 miles farther than where I lived. I once talked with a passenger who commuted by VRE and Metro from Fredericksburg to Maryland. He said it took 3 hours. He said that driving sometimes took 2 hours, sometimes 4. When VRE didn't run, I sometimes drove to work; it was only 50 miles door to door but never took less than 2 hours.

I have to say I find the characterization of Wilton, CT as a farming town to be utterly hilarious. It hasn't been that since probably at least 75 years ago.

Yeah Wilton, CT to GCT is “super commuting”?! Don’t flatter thyself whoever thinks it is..

I recall an article in the NYT or somewhere else about 10 years ago which featured an interview with a law student who went from Port Jervis to Queens and back 3-5 days per week. I thought *that* was impressive given the multiple connections needed to be made enroute. The guy didn’t seem to mind it.

When I was 18 I thought the prospect of commuting from the Stamford, CT area to South Orange, NJ for college was extreme since that would require Metro-North, 1-2 subways, and then NJT. I told my parents “no way, I just won’t go to Seton Hall then”. And I didn’t

My dad knew of coworkers at his office who took the bus from Allentown/Easton, PA to Midtown Manhattan (which in reality is the same distance as GCT-New Haven Union Station) and he himself did for a brief period in the late 90s commuted from Shore Line East territory to GCT and back each day. The mile markers on the new cat poles were well over 90 by the time his train would arrive at his station.

And of course a member or former member here commutes/commuted from Montauk to Long Island City and back each day. Interesting that the LIRR now offers an early AM rush hour one-seat ride that originates in Southampton (supplementing the regular early AM rush train from Montauk.

I live in the very very edge of Warren County in a nice quiet town. I drive to High Bridge and sleep or if I need to be in early to Easton to take the bus to NYC. Its a long quiet ride with a 15-20 minuet drive first of all