11 ms·

I did this exact commute (Phillipsburg, NJ) to Port Authority for a few months when I first graduated college and was living with my to-be-in-laws. It was grue

I did this exact commute (Phillipsburg, NJ) to Port Authority for a few months when I first graduated college and was living with my to-be-in-laws. It was grueling and miserable. I would wake up at 5:30, stand outside in the cold at 6:45, arrive at PABT at 9 to be in at work by 9:30 - 10. Leave at 6:30 to be home by... 10:30 , eat cold dinner in bed then go to sleep to start all over. I broke down one day and couldn't do it anymore so I got an apartment in the city (It was harder than it sounds. Searching for a non-craphole place in a good area then throwing down like $6k just to get in. Yikes.) I don't understand people who do this as a lifestyle. It is miserable and you spend an inordinate amount of your life on a bus: Get a new job.

Tade0 9y ago
I looked at the map and at this rate you would easily run a brand new car to death every 5 years or so. Scary.
- madamelic 9y ago
  Yeah, exactly. I can't imagine driving. I started taking my personal laptop with me and using my phone as a hotspot (because the bus WiFi is a joke). I would get stressed just looking at the traffic the bus had to endure, I can't imagine having to do that then work for 8 hours then do it over again (plus the cost of parking!)
Touche 9y ago
It's too bad the hyperloop idea is focused on city->city transportation. It could be an incredible tool to combat the increasing cost of living in cities. Imagine living this far away but getting to work in 30 minutes. Housing prices would return to sanity in cities.
- tacostakohashi 9y ago
  Not just that, but in many ways a strange business decision. Traditionally, it's not uncommon for railways to build a line to the middle of nowhere where they own the land, then make their money developing and selling the land, rather than from fares.
  - kangman 9y ago
    i believe Hong Kong's metro uses that strategy.
    - huac 9y ago
      They do build malls into their stations, but the HK metro is also profitable from just gate fares.
- mcrider 9y ago
  At least it can serve to distribute the cost of living to multiple cities. Philly is incredibly cheap in comparison to NYC -- As mentioned in this article (and others) people are already commuting daily from their homes in Philly to their office in New York.
  - Touche 9y ago
    Yeah, good point. It could also serve to grow smaller cities. I imagine something like Albany would be an attractive option, if they could afford to build a hyperloop there.
    - Nav_Panel 9y ago
      Why bother with Hyperloop to Albany? The train right-of-way already exists (and it's beautiful), the terminals already exist. Plus, people want to go to Hudson, Poughkeepsie, Tarrytown, etc. Just make it very high speed rail and suddenly the full trip is <1 hour instead of >2.
      - Touche 9y ago
        That's a great start! A hyperloop would be half that (or more), so obviously it's more attractive for that reason.
        Nav_Panel 9y ago
        A hyperloop terminal would probably be located in a vastly less convenient location than Penn Station. I expect for many NYC residents it'd be a shorter trip to take a high speed train through the existing right-of-way than to take a hyperloop, similar to how it's often faster to take the train from NYC to DC than to fly. I really do not see the appeal of hyperloop in any situation involving high density land use, and I also do not see how it could work in locations without high density.
        Touche 9y ago
- dx034 9y ago
  You don't need hyperloop. Existing train technology could easily provide this. With modern signals and a good track, high speed trains can deliver good throughput with high comfort. The problem appears to be the old tracks (speed restrictions) and old signalling system which increases delays and lowers throughput. EDIT: To use the route here as an example. According to google maps the distance is 83 miles on road, so probably around 80 miles for a train. This can easily be done within 45 min on a train. Have a look at the German cities of Cologne and Frankfurt. There's a high speed train running and I know some people commuting there. It's not nice either but a distance of 150 miles with <1hr commute each direction. The ticket costs ~$4,500 per year which includes free rides on all trains within Germany. There are 3 stops on the way and some people only commute half the way which makes it a 20-25 min commute for the same distance of Philipsburg to NYC.
  - crdb 9y ago
    > With modern signals and a good track, high speed trains can deliver good throughput with high comfort. This exists in France where some countryside TGV stations have become Parisian commute towns. E.g. Angers-Paris (296km, 1h15 by TGV) - http://www.lepoint.fr/villes/tgv-boulot-saint-laud-25-10-2012-1528534_27.php http://www.lepoint.fr/villes/tgv-boulot-saint-laud-25-10-201... (French)
  - bradleyjg 9y ago
    To give a point of comparison, Riverhead in Suffolk County is about 80 miles from Penn Station. Monthly tickets would add up to $6,000 a year. There's one train in the morning that you have to catch, leaving at 6:08 AM. It requires two transfers and gets to Penn Station at 8:23 AM. On the way back you again only have one train to catch, at 5:41 PM. It has one transfer and gets to Riverhead to 7:37 PM. For not much more than 8 hours at the office (depending on how far away from Penn it is) you'd be away from your house for more than 14 hours every day.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  I wonder how well you could do with a planned town and a hyperloop or high-speed rail line? Offering a 1-hour commute to somewhere 150 miles away from San Francsico sounds like a risky-but-worthwhile development. Difficulty would obvious vary quite a lot by city, and I imagine NYC is basically irreparable since you can't even get a line into it. But it would at least have potential for less dense locations.
  - deathanatos 9y ago
    I'm not sure you could get a line into SF. CalTrain has been trying to electrify their line, and even that appears to have been a mini-nightmare, e.g., with Atherton suing.
    - x3n0ph3n3 9y ago
      It doesn't help that Caltrain is trying to take land via Eminent Domain. I just wish I could get a reliable internet connection on Caltrain.
- TheCoelacanth 9y ago
  Cities are the only place that have enough potential passengers to make the high cost of building something like that worth it.
  - Touche 9y ago
    I know :) That's why I said "too bad". We can't fix the cost of living in cities problem if the only place it's convenient to live is already-big cities.
- paulsutter 9y ago
  The Boring Company is planning 200kph for local tunnels and 1000kph for hyperloop between cities. This can be the biggest ever impact in commuting times at all distances.
mcone 9y ago
I agree with you. But in their defense, many of the people in the article have children. As a parent, I can understand why you would want to give your children a space away from the city. Some people are willing to make a personal sacrifice to improve the rest of the family's life.
- accountyaccount 9y ago
  When your children are adults you're going to miss the time, not what you gave them.
  - saalweachter 9y ago
    Just Re: the "think of the children" angle. My commute is 2 hours and change, each way; I'm out of the house for a little over 12 hours a day. My job is flexible, so I can leave for work at a little before 9 and return home a little after; I can also work from home 1 day a week. This amounts to being away from home ... about 50 hours a week, 60 when I go into the office all five days. Is this forum really going to tell me being out of the house 50 or 60 hours a week is excessive? Compared to a parent who has to work 2 jobs, or who has a job that requires long shifts, or who has to be away from home for weeks or months, a well-managed long commute hardly interferes with a family life at all.
    - dyeje 9y ago
      In the original comment, the person speaks about being commuting to work or at work literally all their waking hours. That's the scenario, not 50-60 hours a week.
    - morgtheborg 9y ago
      > Compared to a parent who has to work 2 jobs, or who has a job that requires long shifts, or who has to be away from home for weeks or months Yea, those are shitty for family life too.
    - accountyaccount 9y ago
      I work 9-5 with a 30 minute commute and see my kid for about 2 hours a day during the week. If you leave at 9 I imagine you get some morning time, so maybe that's your time (and you'd get probably roughly 2 hours there?). Totally cool if that works. I grew up with a single mom who worked 60+ hours a week and I really only spent time with her on weekends. In retrospect I wish I had parents around when I was growing up. She didn't really have a choice, and she feels the same way I do about it — we wish it was possible. I don't want to criticize someone's life and what works for them too harshly, since this is just my personal experience, but I've been on the side of the child and the parent in a situation like this and I didn't like it on either end.
oblio 9y ago
I imagine some of them don't have another option.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  That was my first thought, but the article sort of doesn't support that? Like, this is an expensive lifestyle. Gas and new cars are obviously very pricy, but even with busses and biking this isn't a cheap way to live. Most of the people mentioned are working upper middle class jobs but want to own desirable or spacious land. That's an outlook I very much don't have. I've known people in the other situation, doing 1-3 hours of commuting because they had no choice. But it mostly seems to be about limited transit access, like taking a 10 mile trip that takes two hours because there's no direct bus route, or getting two jobs far from home and one another.
katzgrau 9y ago
I can relate - commuted 2 hours from NJ into Brooklyn for a while. At some point you have to ask yourself if that's the quality of life you really wanted for yourself. I never saw myself as a rat making a grueling trip into NYC for cheese. So I decided to find a WFH gig and grow a company on the side (which is now my full time gig, paying me more than I was paid in BK). Luckily we can do that in our industry.
lallysingh 9y ago
I did this from Northern NJ to NYC. 2hrs each way by bus. Awful. The only benefit was that you almost (98%?) always got a seat. A small laptop and you've got 4 hrs of potential productivity on your own "time" for whatever you want. But wow, does it suck away the joy from your life.
- rhcom2 9y ago
  NJ is currently dealing with the NJTransit summer of hell too. Trains lose power, A/C and lights get shut off (sometimes while underground in the tunnel), tracks get closed and Amtrak always get priority anyway. I lived 15 miles from NYC and it would usually take me two hours door to door. Absolutely miserable.
  - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
    Unless you ride a diesel line into Hoboken. Then it's just bigger than usual crowds to deal with.
  - lallysingh 9y ago
    I'm on the train now. I take a very early train in and that's pretty reasonable. Then the extra time at work and the morning hacking have me pretty well satiated hack-wise. So then it's just time to space out on video, random phone apps, or if I'm a little motivated, coursera.
- mayukh 9y ago
  Did this for ~ 1 year. If you aren't driving and don't have to change buses or trains its possible to structure your life to take advantage of this personal time. While I miss that personal time, I wouldn't trade my current situation for it.
  - lallysingh 9y ago
    Agreed. I'm on NJTransit now but I'd still prefer to have my time back for my own full control!
- 9y ago
DonaldFisk 9y ago
Luxury. My longest commute (admittedly weekly) involved leaving my house near Ipswich in Suffolk, England, at 0430, driving to Stansted Airport, taking a flight to Zaventem, taking a train to Brussels, taking another train to Liege, then taking a bus to Sart Tilman, finally arriving there at 1120 (1030 UK time).
- isostatic 9y ago
  Weekly is very diffferent to daily.
woodpanel 9y ago
Did it and still do it a bit. None of my friends or coworkers grasp why. I sometimes don't either. At least if my train is late again, and doesn't show up for hours. I guess a big part for me is where I came from, which is underclass. Expanding my radius allowed me to overcome pay gaps because I was able to find more companies who would hire me even with my soft skill shortcomings, which always showed my underclassyness. Did multiple of these arrangements with 1h45 each way 5d/w, then 4h each way once/w, an exhausting 2h10 each way 4d/w, then 1h30 each way 4d/w. But on each job, I was able to renegotiate after some time and gotten more remote working days. I do feel the wear and tear of it, but I've gotten exposure which in turn infused me with soft skills. Plus the reputation of the teams I've worked with opens more and more doors for me. Overall I've increased my income by 500%-600% and am in the top-10-decile income group of my country. The only reason I don't use that income now to move closer to my workplace is because in the meantime became a father and the kids will grow up in a quiet town with gradparents who have a farm. And because of my exposure, I can now work 4d/w remote with highest pay I've ever had for work I'm overqualified for.

Tade0 9y ago

I looked at the map and at this rate you would easily run a brand new car to death every 5 years or so. Scary.

madamelic 9y ago
Yeah, exactly. I can't imagine driving. I started taking my personal laptop with me and using my phone as a hotspot (because the bus WiFi is a joke). I would get stressed just looking at the traffic the bus had to endure, I can't imagine having to do that then work for 8 hours then do it over again (plus the cost of parking!)

Touche 9y ago

It's too bad the hyperloop idea is focused on city->city transportation. It could be an incredible tool to combat the increasing cost of living in cities. Imagine living this far away but getting to work in 30 minutes. Housing prices would return to sanity in cities.

tacostakohashi 9y ago
Not just that, but in many ways a strange business decision. Traditionally, it's not uncommon for railways to build a line to the middle of nowhere where they own the land, then make their money developing and selling the land, rather than from fares.
- kangman 9y ago
  i believe Hong Kong's metro uses that strategy.
  - huac 9y ago
    They do build malls into their stations, but the HK metro is also profitable from just gate fares.
mcrider 9y ago
At least it can serve to distribute the cost of living to multiple cities. Philly is incredibly cheap in comparison to NYC -- As mentioned in this article (and others) people are already commuting daily from their homes in Philly to their office in New York.
- Touche 9y ago
  Yeah, good point. It could also serve to grow smaller cities. I imagine something like Albany would be an attractive option, if they could afford to build a hyperloop there.
  - Nav_Panel 9y ago
    Why bother with Hyperloop to Albany? The train right-of-way already exists (and it's beautiful), the terminals already exist. Plus, people want to go to Hudson, Poughkeepsie, Tarrytown, etc. Just make it very high speed rail and suddenly the full trip is <1 hour instead of >2.
    - Touche 9y ago
      That's a great start! A hyperloop would be half that (or more), so obviously it's more attractive for that reason.
      - Nav_Panel 9y ago
        A hyperloop terminal would probably be located in a vastly less convenient location than Penn Station. I expect for many NYC residents it'd be a shorter trip to take a high speed train through the existing right-of-way than to take a hyperloop, similar to how it's often faster to take the train from NYC to DC than to fly. I really do not see the appeal of hyperloop in any situation involving high density land use, and I also do not see how it could work in locations without high density.
        Touche 9y ago
dx034 9y ago
You don't need hyperloop. Existing train technology could easily provide this. With modern signals and a good track, high speed trains can deliver good throughput with high comfort. The problem appears to be the old tracks (speed restrictions) and old signalling system which increases delays and lowers throughput. EDIT: To use the route here as an example. According to google maps the distance is 83 miles on road, so probably around 80 miles for a train. This can easily be done within 45 min on a train. Have a look at the German cities of Cologne and Frankfurt. There's a high speed train running and I know some people commuting there. It's not nice either but a distance of 150 miles with <1hr commute each direction. The ticket costs ~$4,500 per year which includes free rides on all trains within Germany. There are 3 stops on the way and some people only commute half the way which makes it a 20-25 min commute for the same distance of Philipsburg to NYC.
- crdb 9y ago
  > With modern signals and a good track, high speed trains can deliver good throughput with high comfort. This exists in France where some countryside TGV stations have become Parisian commute towns. E.g. Angers-Paris (296km, 1h15 by TGV) - http://www.lepoint.fr/villes/tgv-boulot-saint-laud-25-10-2012-1528534_27.php http://www.lepoint.fr/villes/tgv-boulot-saint-laud-25-10-201... (French)
- bradleyjg 9y ago
  To give a point of comparison, Riverhead in Suffolk County is about 80 miles from Penn Station. Monthly tickets would add up to $6,000 a year. There's one train in the morning that you have to catch, leaving at 6:08 AM. It requires two transfers and gets to Penn Station at 8:23 AM. On the way back you again only have one train to catch, at 5:41 PM. It has one transfer and gets to Riverhead to 7:37 PM. For not much more than 8 hours at the office (depending on how far away from Penn it is) you'd be away from your house for more than 14 hours every day.
Bartweiss 9y ago
I wonder how well you could do with a planned town and a hyperloop or high-speed rail line? Offering a 1-hour commute to somewhere 150 miles away from San Francsico sounds like a risky-but-worthwhile development. Difficulty would obvious vary quite a lot by city, and I imagine NYC is basically irreparable since you can't even get a line into it. But it would at least have potential for less dense locations.
- deathanatos 9y ago
  I'm not sure you could get a line into SF. CalTrain has been trying to electrify their line, and even that appears to have been a mini-nightmare, e.g., with Atherton suing.
  - x3n0ph3n3 9y ago
    It doesn't help that Caltrain is trying to take land via Eminent Domain. I just wish I could get a reliable internet connection on Caltrain.
TheCoelacanth 9y ago
Cities are the only place that have enough potential passengers to make the high cost of building something like that worth it.
- Touche 9y ago
  I know :) That's why I said "too bad". We can't fix the cost of living in cities problem if the only place it's convenient to live is already-big cities.
paulsutter 9y ago
The Boring Company is planning 200kph for local tunnels and 1000kph for hyperloop between cities. This can be the biggest ever impact in commuting times at all distances.

mcone 9y ago

I agree with you. But in their defense, many of the people in the article have children. As a parent, I can understand why you would want to give your children a space away from the city. Some people are willing to make a personal sacrifice to improve the rest of the family's life.

accountyaccount 9y ago
When your children are adults you're going to miss the time, not what you gave them.
- saalweachter 9y ago
  Just Re: the "think of the children" angle. My commute is 2 hours and change, each way; I'm out of the house for a little over 12 hours a day. My job is flexible, so I can leave for work at a little before 9 and return home a little after; I can also work from home 1 day a week. This amounts to being away from home ... about 50 hours a week, 60 when I go into the office all five days. Is this forum really going to tell me being out of the house 50 or 60 hours a week is excessive? Compared to a parent who has to work 2 jobs, or who has a job that requires long shifts, or who has to be away from home for weeks or months, a well-managed long commute hardly interferes with a family life at all.
  - dyeje 9y ago
    In the original comment, the person speaks about being commuting to work or at work literally all their waking hours. That's the scenario, not 50-60 hours a week.
  - morgtheborg 9y ago
    > Compared to a parent who has to work 2 jobs, or who has a job that requires long shifts, or who has to be away from home for weeks or months Yea, those are shitty for family life too.
  - accountyaccount 9y ago
    I work 9-5 with a 30 minute commute and see my kid for about 2 hours a day during the week. If you leave at 9 I imagine you get some morning time, so maybe that's your time (and you'd get probably roughly 2 hours there?). Totally cool if that works. I grew up with a single mom who worked 60+ hours a week and I really only spent time with her on weekends. In retrospect I wish I had parents around when I was growing up. She didn't really have a choice, and she feels the same way I do about it — we wish it was possible. I don't want to criticize someone's life and what works for them too harshly, since this is just my personal experience, but I've been on the side of the child and the parent in a situation like this and I didn't like it on either end.

oblio 9y ago

I imagine some of them don't have another option.

Bartweiss 9y ago
That was my first thought, but the article sort of doesn't support that? Like, this is an expensive lifestyle. Gas and new cars are obviously very pricy, but even with busses and biking this isn't a cheap way to live. Most of the people mentioned are working upper middle class jobs but want to own desirable or spacious land. That's an outlook I very much don't have. I've known people in the other situation, doing 1-3 hours of commuting because they had no choice. But it mostly seems to be about limited transit access, like taking a 10 mile trip that takes two hours because there's no direct bus route, or getting two jobs far from home and one another.

katzgrau 9y ago

I can relate - commuted 2 hours from NJ into Brooklyn for a while. At some point you have to ask yourself if that's the quality of life you really wanted for yourself. I never saw myself as a rat making a grueling trip into NYC for cheese. So I decided to find a WFH gig and grow a company on the side (which is now my full time gig, paying me more than I was paid in BK). Luckily we can do that in our industry.

lallysingh 9y ago

I did this from Northern NJ to NYC. 2hrs each way by bus. Awful. The only benefit was that you almost (98%?) always got a seat. A small laptop and you've got 4 hrs of potential productivity on your own "time" for whatever you want. But wow, does it suck away the joy from your life.

rhcom2 9y ago
NJ is currently dealing with the NJTransit summer of hell too. Trains lose power, A/C and lights get shut off (sometimes while underground in the tunnel), tracks get closed and Amtrak always get priority anyway. I lived 15 miles from NYC and it would usually take me two hours door to door. Absolutely miserable.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  Unless you ride a diesel line into Hoboken. Then it's just bigger than usual crowds to deal with.
- lallysingh 9y ago
  I'm on the train now. I take a very early train in and that's pretty reasonable. Then the extra time at work and the morning hacking have me pretty well satiated hack-wise. So then it's just time to space out on video, random phone apps, or if I'm a little motivated, coursera.
mayukh 9y ago
Did this for ~ 1 year. If you aren't driving and don't have to change buses or trains its possible to structure your life to take advantage of this personal time. While I miss that personal time, I wouldn't trade my current situation for it.
- lallysingh 9y ago
  Agreed. I'm on NJTransit now but I'd still prefer to have my time back for my own full control!
9y ago

DonaldFisk 9y ago

Luxury. My longest commute (admittedly weekly) involved leaving my house near Ipswich in Suffolk, England, at 0430, driving to Stansted Airport, taking a flight to Zaventem, taking a train to Brussels, taking another train to Liege, then taking a bus to Sart Tilman, finally arriving there at 1120 (1030 UK time).

isostatic 9y ago
Weekly is very diffferent to daily.

woodpanel 9y ago

Did it and still do it a bit. None of my friends or coworkers grasp why. I sometimes don't either. At least if my train is late again, and doesn't show up for hours. I guess a big part for me is where I came from, which is underclass. Expanding my radius allowed me to overcome pay gaps because I was able to find more companies who would hire me even with my soft skill shortcomings, which always showed my underclassyness. Did multiple of these arrangements with 1h45 each way 5d/w, then 4h each way once/w, an exhausting 2h10 each way 4d/w, then 1h30 each way 4d/w. But on each job, I was able to renegotiate after some time and gotten more remote working days. I do feel the wear and tear of it, but I've gotten exposure which in turn infused me with soft skills. Plus the reputation of the teams I've worked with opens more and more doors for me. Overall I've increased my income by 500%-600% and am in the top-10-decile income group of my country. The only reason I don't use that income now to move closer to my workplace is because in the meantime became a father and the kids will grow up in a quiet town with gradparents who have a farm. And because of my exposure, I can now work 4d/w remote with highest pay I've ever had for work I'm overqualified for.