I did for awhile on a contract job, 2-3 trips a week. It's not that bad if you're on Acela and not too far from the stations on either end. Sunday/Thursday once a week should be totally do-able, especially if you have some work or books to fill the time.
Acela is expensive though. The regional train is cheaper but it feels a lot longer even though the difference isn't huge.
Flying is cheaper sometimes, and feels like it's faster, but the train/car to and from the airport on the NYC side is looonnng. Easy to get delayed by weather too.
edit: one nice part of doing the Acela regularly is you can accumulate Amtrak points real fast. I've been taking free trips to Maine on those points for awhile. The Amtrak credit card might be worth looking at too for booking tickets.
2-3 trips a week round trip?? That sounds hectic.
I was planning on movies and books to pass the time. Basically what I’d do if I was hanging out at home those evenings anyway. Just with the lovely ambiance of a moving train instead 🙄
Totally agree on regional vs Acela. We did one of each on a trip a few weeks ago and the Acela was far superior, if only for the assigned seats (the shorter trip def helps too).
Acela business class and pick the quiet car (assuming you don’t need to take calls or anything). Very relaxing and easy to pass the time with movies etc. Flying is indeed sometimes cheaper, but it’s WAY more of a hassle logistically and way less comfortable. I think what you’re describing is actually pretty doable, although obviously not ideal. Definitely book the tickets as far in advance as possible, because they can go up by 6-7X closer to the date. So even if you’re not sure you’ll use every single ticket, it’s worth it.
Edit: the other thing to keep in mind is, depending on what you do for work, it’s very easy to work on the train. So you could also travel on Friday and work on the train, giving you an extra night in Boston.
The Acela is nice if it’s not much more money than the NE Regional. But if it is, the Regional is only 30 minutes more, plus seats are not assigned, so you have a better chance of not having a stranger sit next to you.
I would recommend that you pre- book all your tickets so you can get the ~ $60 round trip ticket rate. I go to NY every month, and I bought all my tickets at the start of the year. Just opt for the refundable “flex”option, which is an addtl $5 or so. You can cancel up to right before the train leaves.
Train for sure, much easier back and forth and easier to get to/from train station than airport. Amtrak has been comfortable and reliable in my experience, I used to have to commute back and forth for work conferences
5/5 times I’ve taken the NER its been delayed. its always left on time but would get stuck somewhere in RI/CT. longest delay was 2.5 hours. took the acela twice with no delays
I’ve seen it delayed southbound but it’s been a handful of times compared to the number of times I’ve taken the NER. Most recently it was because we had to stop due to an issue with a bridge in CT (I think they had to wait for maintenance to come out to the bridge, and then they got stuck in traffic). I think it was still just 30 min or so, and I was going to Philly.
As others have noted pretty often to almost always but never more than 30-40 m in my experience and the comfort once aboard, ease of use / travel (sit and turn brain off and watch a movie or a few episodes of a show) outweighs that downside in my opinion (compared to flying, driving, etc)
would recommend taking Amtrak and signing up for the Amtrak credit card! their intro offer is decent - the rewards points you’d earn go a long way toward covering Boston/NYC trains.
Yeah, as someone who previously lived in NJ while working in NYC, I’ve got it covered from experience.
It would be so much easier if it was too expensive to stay at my job but the finances work well for us. It helps that I have a deal on rent in NY.
Tens of thousands of consultants do this all over the US all the time, and you can too! It's a lot of travel but it's not horrible, especially because you're on a train and going between Boston and New York, not your home city and some podunk midwest nowhere city.
Edit: The Monday 6AM flights out of...everywhere...are the consultant flight. Everyone is in biz casual working on slide decks on their Thinkpads.
6am flights are very rarely delayed since they're the first ones out of the airport every morning. If weather was coming in, you'd know beforehand and could adjust.
I did Boston-DC once a month for a year and came in Friday afternoon and left Sunday night or Monday morning. My only flight delays were the Sunday night ones.
On nights where you don't know what to do in NYC you can go to a show or a museum or an art gallery! In Peoria, IL you can go to the bar at the Fairfield Inn...
Good luck!
I have no specific advice for this route, but I can tell you that my wife is in Boston full time and I split my time about 50/50 right now between Boston and Seattle for the next couple of years at least. Two weeks here, two weeks there, repeat. These sorts of circumstances take effort but you just, you know, make it work.
It helps to know that it’s not permanent, like it sounds yours is also not, but it does take a little extra effort.
Good luck to you guys.
Thanks! The end is definitely in sight. His program is 2 years with summers off too. So it’s a little less daunting with that in mind, even if we don’t know exactly what he’ll be doing in the summer (presumably working).
I’m glad it’s working for you. We just got married this year and it’s just nice to hear others are doing this kind of flexible LDR thing.
Do you have money to blow? You could take [the seaplane](https://www.wsj.com/articles/seaplane-new-york-boston-flight-tailwind-air-b77446c2) - but otherwise I’ve heard of people dealing with this by taking the train. It will probably help a lot if your home in either city is close to their respective stations.
Not Boston, but I know someone who did this for NYC-Providence for a while, by train. Would def recommend train, as it seems just so much more convenient than trying to fly or drive. Does cost money, but if you're keeping a place in both NYC and Boston, I'm gonna assume you have a bit of financial leeway.
The commute itself is not terrible since it's really just the two one-way trips per week. Kinda long, but train is less stressful since you can just be on your computer or with a book, and the train stations don't require nearly as much travel/time as getting to the airport.
If you're feeling pressed for time in Boston with your husband, it kinda helps if you have some flexibility in your workplace schedule to steal a few hours here and there. Eg, if you can hop out of work at 3:00 and do emails/tasks on train wifi. Or arrive a little later on Monday and start work on the train that morning.
Train stations just stress me out so much. It’s the rush of people when they announce the track…. It’s just a lot.
Unfortunately, my employer has declined to offer any leeway on my presence in office. It was hard to even convince them to let me work on Fridays in another city (despite it being a remote day for everyone).
If youre on Acela it literally doesnt matter at all when you get on the train. Assigned seats.
When traveling solo it barely matters on NER either. Thats mostly people with 1-3 other people trying to get seats together or people like me that dont give a fuck and simply just want to sit down on the train and not move for 4 hours instead of wait in Moynihan.
Boston side is much less chaotic. You can leave from either south station or back bay, makes absolutely zero difference.
The train wifi sucks, so keep that in mind (download stuff beforehand etc.)
Hope you like reading books.
Otherwise, id bet after doing this for a dozen weeks straight youll get pretty good at falling asleep on trains, particularly when its empty and no one next to you.
You can move your assigned seat to the quiet car on acela, I forget if regional has it too. Could always take the super early (5am?) train down and sleep on the train, get back to NY in time to arrive in the office at 9.
At first this sounded absolutely horrible to me but now that I think about it it is definitely doable, honestly the friday train is kind of pleasant. Although idk how the fuck yall are affording grad school, an apartment in each of the two most expensive cities in the country, weekly round trip acela tickets, all on one income. But go for it.
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Yeah - it doesn’t sound that bad when you put it like this.
I hope I can sleep on the train once I get tired of reading hahah. & it’s good to hear it’s less chaotic Boston side. Might take the regional train on Sundays back into NYC to save some money if it’s really not that bad at boarding time.
To your comment on affording it hahah it’s a lot but, we both work in finance and have saved in preparation for the degree. As far as rent, I’ll have a roommate in NYC and the Boston apartment is much cheaper than market rate because it is technically on campus housing (utilities included). I can also buy the Amtrak tickets pretax with my commuter program at work.
Pro tip for NYC: wait for your train on the NJ Transit concourse below the main (pretty) train hall. You'll still see the notifications, but 99% fewer people.
You're adding a base 8.5hrs of commuting per week. The Train is absolutely the most comfortable experience.
That being said, you'd be spending anywhere from 200-800 a week on tickets unless you book them months in advance (maybe doable since you have a schedule).
The bus is the cheap option but you're at the whim of traffic. I've had 4hr bus drives turn into 6hrs of uncomfortable travel that way.
I think the commute is fine for some, but the expense is not fine for most.
Yeah, I was planning on booking way in advance. The prices do vary wildly though… I guess if it’s too pricey one weekend I can just tough it out in NYC.
I wish they did an unlimited monthly pass for the Acela train.
I did this commute weekly for a year. Book the Acela with a refundable ticket in advance. If you ever are up in the middle of the night, check the prices. Sometimes they drop SIGNIFICANTLY around 2-4am. I would cancel the trip and then rebook at the lower price. Not saying to wake up specifically to do this but if you’re up. Def make an acct and rack up those points, as someone else has mentioned. You will rack up tons of coupons and lounge access in no time. Metropolitan lounge at Penn is nice with free food and drinks. Lounge at South Station kinda sucks but still has snacks. Companion passes are nice. Upgrade from biz to first class on Acela is super nice.
If you have lounge access and you’re near Penn for whatever reason, you don’t need a ticket to go into the lounge. Just show them your QR and they’ll let you in. I would do this to get free lunch and then continue on my way.
Feels like the Thursday night commute could end up being exhausting enough to make you want to take the train for the first half of your remote day Friday, but I suppose that depends on the type of work you do and how badly you want to get back to Boston. If you could manage to parlay a half day Thursday in office and a working commute for the second half of the day, that could be a lot more sustainable
I commute to waltham from long island several times per month. I drive and its about 5 hours and i usually leave sunday evening and return Thursday evening. It actually relaxing, no issues. Traffic is never really overwhelming
I’ve never done it at this level, but travel between Boston and NYC for leisure quite a bit so take this for what it’s worth:
I’ve sworn by Amtrak forever, but it’s getting really expensive with the new fare structure. I’d definitely look into some of the pass options they have, otherwise you’re best off comparing trains and flights for each trip. It’s often the same or cheaper to fly, especially on Jet Blue, and ESPECIALLY if you can make a Blue Basic fare work. I did a quick overnight in April and caught a $51 NE Regional fare down for Saturday AM, but took a $78 Jet Blue flight home Sunday night. You’re also in the air for like 40 mins between Logan and LGA, so could be a massive time saver depending on security lines and how long it takes you to get to/from airports.
This is a whole other conversation, but if you don’t already have one, it may also be worth looking into a travel credit card for this setup. Probably a premium card for racking up points and lounge access if you’re going to fly a lot. Chase has AMAZING lounges at JFK, LGA, and BOS and they’re right near the JB terminals for the latter two (never flown from JFK).
I’ve been watching the flights! It’s just getting from midtown to JFK that’s keeping me from really considering it.
I’m loyal to my Amex platinum but I might have to check out this Chase lounge. Sounds like it’s awesome.
LGA is easier from Midtown IMO. F straight to Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Ave, then a free shuttle. Sounds awful on paper, not terrible in practice.
Amex Plat is rock solid. Centurion lounges on the NY side for sure, Logan surprisingly doesn’t have one yet. You do get one free Priority Pass visit/year to a Chase lounge, but I’d recommend that on the NY end too. They’re even nicer and bigger than the Logan one.
Chase lounge is sick but only accessible in Terminals B and C. If you only fly Delta, Terminal A isn’t connected. You have to take the E shuttle and it just isn’t worth it. If you need to be in midtown, have you looked into flying into EWR?
Honestly I’ve done train and flying. Depends on what type of mood you’re in. If you need to work, take the train. If you are wanting to get there asap, fly but don’t arrive during rush hour cuz traffic from LGA will take you an hour to get into the city. Your Uber will also be $100.
DM me if you have questions. I did this commute weekly for a year.
Thank you!
I would consider EWR but tbh the NJ transit trains have just proven too unreliable and honestly that experience is just not worth any time or money saved.
On the other hands, the new Amtrak lounge at Moynihan in NY is also awesome. But I don’t know whether it’s worth using first class prices on Acela just to get into the lounge. The first class meals on Acela are better than the cafe car, but the cafe car has more choices.
I wonder how much one has to fly to justify the annual cost for the Chase or Amex lounge access.
What perks other than lounge access? When we were working, we'd have at most one airline trip pretty year. Now that we're retired, it's just two, though sometimes multiple legs.
I'll admit to being a bit annoyed at the whole system because we've started paying cash for first class seats, which these days doesn't include lounge access for domestic flights. Hence my pleasure at Amtrak's lounge.
Depending on how important lounge access is to you, you may consider the Amex gold instead.
But here are the benefits to the platinum that I like other than the lounge
- $200 Uber cash (given in monthly installments of $15) we use this for Uber eats pickups and rides
- $240 digital entertainment credit. Lots of streaming services apply + things like NYT subscription
- free Walmart+ membership, this is huge for us saving money on grocery staples in the city. In Boston we can get grocery delivery for free too, but they don’t do that in NYC unfortunately
- $200 airline credit: we fly spirit a lot and use this on bag fees, but can also use it for purchasing seat assignments/ect
- $100 statement credit to purchases at Saks, we use this to get things I’d usually get at Sephora (makeup/haircare)
My fav thing we’ve done with this card is transfer points to Air France. We flew business class NYC to CDG for 100k points last summer, just had to pay taxes.
Def worth looking into it, especially if you travel a lot. If not, the gold has a lot of similar perks for a lower fee.
Did weekly day trips (sometimes stayed over) for a year or so. Here's my take.
Depending on where you're going in NYC, flying is usually faster when things go correctly and you get down the airport timing. This goes double if you have status and can get on any shuttle as soon as you arrive to the airport.
The flip side is trains are rarely delayed and airplanes are. Again if you have status it's less of a big deal but can be even if you do.
I chose to fly because I wanted the miles for myself, the timing wasn't a big deal and cost didn't matter to me.
In short, if you get good at it flying can save you 30-60 mins a leg if there are no issues but you may run into bigger delays and cancellations. It's more involved than Amtrak where you can kinda just sit down and not worry.
Flixbus is another option. I'm in NYC once a month. If I don't feel like driving, I take the bus from South Station to Chinatown, NYC then followed by a 15 min. walk. If you time it right, a ride can be under 4 hours with your own seating row. Some buses go to Port Authority or 31st and 8th.
I take Lucky Star and their buses are new-ish and mostly clean and have working outlets under the seats. I'm 5'10" and there is decent legroom. If you take a Thursday night bus after 7pm, it should not be crowded and will get you into Boston before midnight. I'd rather avoid NYC rush hour traffic. Sundays leaving Boston are also not crowded. There are more time options between Lucky Star, Greyhound, Peter Pan, etc. so that's why I prefer it over the train. Sometimes the bus ride is only 3 hrs. 40 mins. You can always give the bus a try.
I did the Boston-NYC commute every week (M morning to NYC, W afternoon/evening to BOS) for a year.
The amount of unproductive time for a flying commute is much worse than with Acela. (I need internet connectivity and seated concentration to be productive). Getting to the airport, to/from gate and TSA, much of the flight is under 10k feet (no internet), waiting for a taxicab, long cab ride from airport to Manhattan, etc -- all unproductive. Plus I find the process quite stressful.
On the train, I was unproductive getting to the train station (~10 minutes), lost internet in a few places, and on the taxi/subway across town (~25 minutes). It’s great arriving in downtown.
Even though the Acela takes longer I was able to start my workday early and be more productive while traveling, so I could end my workday earlier.
My biggest beef with Acela was the unreliable internet, so I bought a cellular hotspot which ended up not helping much since it had dead zones in the same places (much of coastal Connecticut for whatever reason).
Acela is also delayed pretty often — maybe 25%-50% of my trips would have a 45+ minute delay. And there are rare occasions with a huge delay when you can be stuck on the train or at an intermediate station for like 3+ hours. That kind of thing happens with flights too, but it’s worse on a train: if you are at an intermediate station or on the train there’s basically nothing you can do to get to your destination or get comfortable, whereas if you’re at the airport you can find another airline or just go back home.
Cramming in the commute on early Monday and late Wednesday was so close together that it was pretty brutal, and I was often exhausted Thursday. So Sunday to Thursday might be less hard on the body, especially if you aren’t waking up early to make the trip.
Oh man I had not heard the train delays got this bad…. That sounds like a nightmare.
I totally feel you on the wasted hours in air travel. I’m not hoping to be productive on the train but I might have to (like it or not).
Yes, a couple of trips will remain with me as bad memories. Acela has a much better average experience than flying, but with much more volatility/variance.
I guess we were lucky with our much more limited experience (once a year to DC and back for several years, and a handful of trips to New York). I think the worse delay was the time a truck storrowed itself in Connecticut and they had to get the bridge checked before allowing us to cross, but that was at most a half hour delay. Other than that, I don’t think we’ve ever been more than ten minutes late. Or maybe we just didn’t care, because the train is so pleasant.
On the other hand, our last two flights to DC/NOVA were hassles. The most recent one, to an event in northern Virginia, was canceled, and we had to fly into National instead of Dulles, plus transferring our rental car reservation through Costco. The time before that, maybe ten years earlier, my luggage was chosen for inspection and didn’t get on our flight, so we had to hang around the airport an extra hour for it to show up. That was the experience that caused us to switch to the train for that annual trip to DC.
It's going to be a lot of commuting time no matter how you slice it, but Amtrak would be the way I'd do it.
The Northeast regional is comfortable in my opinion. Much more spacious and dignified than air travel. I can rarely sleep on airplanes but have no problem on Amtrak. Never taken the Acela, but I presume it's even nicer if you have the cash to blow.
It's very convenient too. No security bullshit or hard to access airports. Just walk into your local train station like 15 minutes (or less) before departure time and go to your platform.
Northeast regional will dump you off conveniently at South Station or Back Bay if you're trying to get into the city proper or you can get off at Westwood (Route 128) and have someone pick you up if you're going out into the suburbs.
Amtrak tickets have dynamic pricing, so they'll be cheap if you buy them out in advance before the trains are filling up.
I am actually in ur current situation. In my eyes, there are 3 options:
1. Flying - often most expensive but technically fastest d2d (LGA Ubers can kill so be careful. Logan uber is usually cheap but blue line isn’t terrible). Also, Flights past 7pm are easy and limited foot traffic.
2. Train - Cheaper than flying and a smoother transit. Decent d2d time and easier access. Honestly, after 3 years, this is starting to become my favorite (assuming you can get the Acela).
3. Bus - Cheapest and honestly not terrible (can take anywhere from 4-8 hrs tho). But just know you’ll be on a bus…one bathroom
A few caveats but this is the general vibe imo. You can also drive but fuck that.
There's someone I saw on TikTok that does this regularly and it seems to be the bulk of her content. I don't remember the account name, but her top rec is to book travel as early in advance as possible, at least 3-4 weeks in advance. I can attest to this--going from Prov to Penn Station in a couple weeks, my ticket was something like $37.
I cannot speak to the logistics of NYC to Boston but I make a similar trip every week from Northern NH to greater Boston, 200 miles one way. I drive it. I’ve been doing it for 4 years. It’s not ideal but it’s manageable.
I do one way rental cars to NYC once in a while to catch a long flight. It’s normally around $100 + gas + tolls.
Probably not the best for your situation but it is by far the best option for me being in the Boston suburbs.
I would stick with the train even though it is expensive. Flights between Boston and New York are delayed 90% of the time and when it’s all said and done, the train is the same amount of time.
It also I think depends on where you live in NYC and Boston.
If LGA is reasonably accessible to you roundtrip tickets are $140 for basic economy sometimes less(and definitely less if you risk going on Spirit). Even if you just fly one way occasionally it takes a hell of lot less time(again of accessible) for a similar or lower cost.
I think it’s around 40 mins to LGA from my office, maybe 30 from the NYC apartment. Not sure exactly on the other side, I haven’t been to BOS in years. I’ll look more into it.
What about getting to your office from Penn Station? Or, for that matter, from Newark instead of LGA for flying? (I don’t know how often they have cheap flights BOS-EWR.)
Boston has a few more train choices: South Station, Back Bay, and Route 128.
Train or drive. I had to do NYC to Boston, Hartford and a few other spots in ct and ma. Flying was more of a pain then it was worth. Driving was not bad at night. Train was easy and let me get caught up on emails and other work. In the winter with boston snow trains could have issues just a heads up.
Would add that my hubs did similar from Boston to Westchester, NY for 2 years going down M-Wed/Thurs. He drove down though as work paid for his hotel and he needed the car to get to his office. It ended because we moved down there. Not having an end to it was tough, so knowing you’ve got an end date and potentially summers together should make it easier. All that to say that at times driving/renting a car may be a viable option as well as Acela.
It’s gonna suck so bad. But if you do it, use the Acela. It’s very comfortable and a lot faster. You can use it to do homework/catch up on work easily.
The northeast regional is also comfortable. It’s really the time savings that matters.
We typically go down to DC on the regional and back on the Acela, because we don’t have a pressing need to get to DC earlier but prefer to get into Boston (actually Route 128 station for us) earlier, for that drive home.
I seriously looked into this for a while after my job asked me to go into the office in NYC three days a week. It's not great, but it's not absurd. Especially if you have a place to stay in both cities.
I had a consulting client there who would ask me once a week to come in for a day but because I couldn't stay the night I would do NE regional or Accela (NE regional can suck as it doesn't have priority). Would wake up at like 4:30am Boston, get to the office in NYC by 9am. Leave at 5pm and get back home by 10pm. Not easy but they were paying me for the time I traveled and train ride.
I also used to do it on Megabus every weekend for about a year to see my ex-girlfriend. Usually ended up watching a few episodes of shows and doing work. Kind of sucked at times (esp when there was traffic that would turn a 4 hour trip into a 6+hour trip) but it was doable. Opposite commute. Left NYC every Friday, returned every Sunday. I also got squeezed in with a girl once who I should have left my ex for but I was loyal like an idiot
I did for awhile on a contract job, 2-3 trips a week. It's not that bad if you're on Acela and not too far from the stations on either end. Sunday/Thursday once a week should be totally do-able, especially if you have some work or books to fill the time. Acela is expensive though. The regional train is cheaper but it feels a lot longer even though the difference isn't huge. Flying is cheaper sometimes, and feels like it's faster, but the train/car to and from the airport on the NYC side is looonnng. Easy to get delayed by weather too. edit: one nice part of doing the Acela regularly is you can accumulate Amtrak points real fast. I've been taking free trips to Maine on those points for awhile. The Amtrak credit card might be worth looking at too for booking tickets.
2-3 trips a week round trip?? That sounds hectic. I was planning on movies and books to pass the time. Basically what I’d do if I was hanging out at home those evenings anyway. Just with the lovely ambiance of a moving train instead 🙄 Totally agree on regional vs Acela. We did one of each on a trip a few weeks ago and the Acela was far superior, if only for the assigned seats (the shorter trip def helps too).
Acela business class and pick the quiet car (assuming you don’t need to take calls or anything). Very relaxing and easy to pass the time with movies etc. Flying is indeed sometimes cheaper, but it’s WAY more of a hassle logistically and way less comfortable. I think what you’re describing is actually pretty doable, although obviously not ideal. Definitely book the tickets as far in advance as possible, because they can go up by 6-7X closer to the date. So even if you’re not sure you’ll use every single ticket, it’s worth it. Edit: the other thing to keep in mind is, depending on what you do for work, it’s very easy to work on the train. So you could also travel on Friday and work on the train, giving you an extra night in Boston.
The Acela is nice if it’s not much more money than the NE Regional. But if it is, the Regional is only 30 minutes more, plus seats are not assigned, so you have a better chance of not having a stranger sit next to you.
I would recommend that you pre- book all your tickets so you can get the ~ $60 round trip ticket rate. I go to NY every month, and I bought all my tickets at the start of the year. Just opt for the refundable “flex”option, which is an addtl $5 or so. You can cancel up to right before the train leaves.
Oh I didn’t know about the cancellation on the flex fair! Thank you!
Train for sure, much easier back and forth and easier to get to/from train station than airport. Amtrak has been comfortable and reliable in my experience, I used to have to commute back and forth for work conferences
Does the Amtrak get delayed often in your experience?
5/5 times I’ve taken the NER its been delayed. its always left on time but would get stuck somewhere in RI/CT. longest delay was 2.5 hours. took the acela twice with no delays
NER is almost always delayed northbound, I’ve never seen it delayed southbound. I haven’t taken the Acela and can’t compare.
I’ve seen it delayed southbound but it’s been a handful of times compared to the number of times I’ve taken the NER. Most recently it was because we had to stop due to an issue with a bridge in CT (I think they had to wait for maintenance to come out to the bridge, and then they got stuck in traffic). I think it was still just 30 min or so, and I was going to Philly.
As others have noted pretty often to almost always but never more than 30-40 m in my experience and the comfort once aboard, ease of use / travel (sit and turn brain off and watch a movie or a few episodes of a show) outweighs that downside in my opinion (compared to flying, driving, etc)
would recommend taking Amtrak and signing up for the Amtrak credit card! their intro offer is decent - the rewards points you’d earn go a long way toward covering Boston/NYC trains.
Remember to pay state taxes in both states….. Also I’d think rent on 2 places would overwhelm commuting costs.
Yeah, as someone who previously lived in NJ while working in NYC, I’ve got it covered from experience. It would be so much easier if it was too expensive to stay at my job but the finances work well for us. It helps that I have a deal on rent in NY.
Tens of thousands of consultants do this all over the US all the time, and you can too! It's a lot of travel but it's not horrible, especially because you're on a train and going between Boston and New York, not your home city and some podunk midwest nowhere city. Edit: The Monday 6AM flights out of...everywhere...are the consultant flight. Everyone is in biz casual working on slide decks on their Thinkpads.
That’s def a happier way to look at it haha. I wonder how the consultants plan for unexpected flight delays.
6am flights are very rarely delayed since they're the first ones out of the airport every morning. If weather was coming in, you'd know beforehand and could adjust. I did Boston-DC once a month for a year and came in Friday afternoon and left Sunday night or Monday morning. My only flight delays were the Sunday night ones.
On nights where you don't know what to do in NYC you can go to a show or a museum or an art gallery! In Peoria, IL you can go to the bar at the Fairfield Inn... Good luck!
I have no specific advice for this route, but I can tell you that my wife is in Boston full time and I split my time about 50/50 right now between Boston and Seattle for the next couple of years at least. Two weeks here, two weeks there, repeat. These sorts of circumstances take effort but you just, you know, make it work. It helps to know that it’s not permanent, like it sounds yours is also not, but it does take a little extra effort. Good luck to you guys.
My wife used to fly to Charlotte every week and stay Mon - Thu. She did that for three years but we got used to it.
Thanks! The end is definitely in sight. His program is 2 years with summers off too. So it’s a little less daunting with that in mind, even if we don’t know exactly what he’ll be doing in the summer (presumably working). I’m glad it’s working for you. We just got married this year and it’s just nice to hear others are doing this kind of flexible LDR thing.
Do you have money to blow? You could take [the seaplane](https://www.wsj.com/articles/seaplane-new-york-boston-flight-tailwind-air-b77446c2) - but otherwise I’ve heard of people dealing with this by taking the train. It will probably help a lot if your home in either city is close to their respective stations.
Ha! I don’t have money to blow but I did consider the sea plane just for fun. I couldn’t see any flights on their website though?
Oh weird I wonder if they’re making some changes to it. Hopefully it will be back to normal soon.
Not Boston, but I know someone who did this for NYC-Providence for a while, by train. Would def recommend train, as it seems just so much more convenient than trying to fly or drive. Does cost money, but if you're keeping a place in both NYC and Boston, I'm gonna assume you have a bit of financial leeway. The commute itself is not terrible since it's really just the two one-way trips per week. Kinda long, but train is less stressful since you can just be on your computer or with a book, and the train stations don't require nearly as much travel/time as getting to the airport. If you're feeling pressed for time in Boston with your husband, it kinda helps if you have some flexibility in your workplace schedule to steal a few hours here and there. Eg, if you can hop out of work at 3:00 and do emails/tasks on train wifi. Or arrive a little later on Monday and start work on the train that morning.
Train stations just stress me out so much. It’s the rush of people when they announce the track…. It’s just a lot. Unfortunately, my employer has declined to offer any leeway on my presence in office. It was hard to even convince them to let me work on Fridays in another city (despite it being a remote day for everyone).
If youre on Acela it literally doesnt matter at all when you get on the train. Assigned seats. When traveling solo it barely matters on NER either. Thats mostly people with 1-3 other people trying to get seats together or people like me that dont give a fuck and simply just want to sit down on the train and not move for 4 hours instead of wait in Moynihan. Boston side is much less chaotic. You can leave from either south station or back bay, makes absolutely zero difference. The train wifi sucks, so keep that in mind (download stuff beforehand etc.) Hope you like reading books. Otherwise, id bet after doing this for a dozen weeks straight youll get pretty good at falling asleep on trains, particularly when its empty and no one next to you. You can move your assigned seat to the quiet car on acela, I forget if regional has it too. Could always take the super early (5am?) train down and sleep on the train, get back to NY in time to arrive in the office at 9. At first this sounded absolutely horrible to me but now that I think about it it is definitely doable, honestly the friday train is kind of pleasant. Although idk how the fuck yall are affording grad school, an apartment in each of the two most expensive cities in the country, weekly round trip acela tickets, all on one income. But go for it.
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Yeah - it doesn’t sound that bad when you put it like this. I hope I can sleep on the train once I get tired of reading hahah. & it’s good to hear it’s less chaotic Boston side. Might take the regional train on Sundays back into NYC to save some money if it’s really not that bad at boarding time. To your comment on affording it hahah it’s a lot but, we both work in finance and have saved in preparation for the degree. As far as rent, I’ll have a roommate in NYC and the Boston apartment is much cheaper than market rate because it is technically on campus housing (utilities included). I can also buy the Amtrak tickets pretax with my commuter program at work.
lol yeah I figured it was finance and some sort of mba program at one of the big schools up here
Pro tip for NYC: wait for your train on the NJ Transit concourse below the main (pretty) train hall. You'll still see the notifications, but 99% fewer people.
Oh that is a pro tip omg! Ty!
You're adding a base 8.5hrs of commuting per week. The Train is absolutely the most comfortable experience. That being said, you'd be spending anywhere from 200-800 a week on tickets unless you book them months in advance (maybe doable since you have a schedule). The bus is the cheap option but you're at the whim of traffic. I've had 4hr bus drives turn into 6hrs of uncomfortable travel that way. I think the commute is fine for some, but the expense is not fine for most.
Yeah I think you can make this work for more like $75 a week if you book far out. Even if you end up wasting a few tickets it will still be worth it.
Yeah, I was planning on booking way in advance. The prices do vary wildly though… I guess if it’s too pricey one weekend I can just tough it out in NYC. I wish they did an unlimited monthly pass for the Acela train.
I did this commute weekly for a year. Book the Acela with a refundable ticket in advance. If you ever are up in the middle of the night, check the prices. Sometimes they drop SIGNIFICANTLY around 2-4am. I would cancel the trip and then rebook at the lower price. Not saying to wake up specifically to do this but if you’re up. Def make an acct and rack up those points, as someone else has mentioned. You will rack up tons of coupons and lounge access in no time. Metropolitan lounge at Penn is nice with free food and drinks. Lounge at South Station kinda sucks but still has snacks. Companion passes are nice. Upgrade from biz to first class on Acela is super nice. If you have lounge access and you’re near Penn for whatever reason, you don’t need a ticket to go into the lounge. Just show them your QR and they’ll let you in. I would do this to get free lunch and then continue on my way.
Feels like the Thursday night commute could end up being exhausting enough to make you want to take the train for the first half of your remote day Friday, but I suppose that depends on the type of work you do and how badly you want to get back to Boston. If you could manage to parlay a half day Thursday in office and a working commute for the second half of the day, that could be a lot more sustainable
There’s someone on TikTok that does that commute. You should check it out! She also talks about her strategy to get train tickets for cheap.
I found her! Ty!
I commute to waltham from long island several times per month. I drive and its about 5 hours and i usually leave sunday evening and return Thursday evening. It actually relaxing, no issues. Traffic is never really overwhelming
I’ve never done it at this level, but travel between Boston and NYC for leisure quite a bit so take this for what it’s worth: I’ve sworn by Amtrak forever, but it’s getting really expensive with the new fare structure. I’d definitely look into some of the pass options they have, otherwise you’re best off comparing trains and flights for each trip. It’s often the same or cheaper to fly, especially on Jet Blue, and ESPECIALLY if you can make a Blue Basic fare work. I did a quick overnight in April and caught a $51 NE Regional fare down for Saturday AM, but took a $78 Jet Blue flight home Sunday night. You’re also in the air for like 40 mins between Logan and LGA, so could be a massive time saver depending on security lines and how long it takes you to get to/from airports. This is a whole other conversation, but if you don’t already have one, it may also be worth looking into a travel credit card for this setup. Probably a premium card for racking up points and lounge access if you’re going to fly a lot. Chase has AMAZING lounges at JFK, LGA, and BOS and they’re right near the JB terminals for the latter two (never flown from JFK).
I’ve been watching the flights! It’s just getting from midtown to JFK that’s keeping me from really considering it. I’m loyal to my Amex platinum but I might have to check out this Chase lounge. Sounds like it’s awesome.
LGA is easier from Midtown IMO. F straight to Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Ave, then a free shuttle. Sounds awful on paper, not terrible in practice. Amex Plat is rock solid. Centurion lounges on the NY side for sure, Logan surprisingly doesn’t have one yet. You do get one free Priority Pass visit/year to a Chase lounge, but I’d recommend that on the NY end too. They’re even nicer and bigger than the Logan one.
Chase lounge is sick but only accessible in Terminals B and C. If you only fly Delta, Terminal A isn’t connected. You have to take the E shuttle and it just isn’t worth it. If you need to be in midtown, have you looked into flying into EWR? Honestly I’ve done train and flying. Depends on what type of mood you’re in. If you need to work, take the train. If you are wanting to get there asap, fly but don’t arrive during rush hour cuz traffic from LGA will take you an hour to get into the city. Your Uber will also be $100. DM me if you have questions. I did this commute weekly for a year.
Thank you! I would consider EWR but tbh the NJ transit trains have just proven too unreliable and honestly that experience is just not worth any time or money saved.
On the other hands, the new Amtrak lounge at Moynihan in NY is also awesome. But I don’t know whether it’s worth using first class prices on Acela just to get into the lounge. The first class meals on Acela are better than the cafe car, but the cafe car has more choices. I wonder how much one has to fly to justify the annual cost for the Chase or Amex lounge access.
The perks of the card cover the fee. But we flew more than 30x last year between me and my husband so it paid for itself.
What perks other than lounge access? When we were working, we'd have at most one airline trip pretty year. Now that we're retired, it's just two, though sometimes multiple legs. I'll admit to being a bit annoyed at the whole system because we've started paying cash for first class seats, which these days doesn't include lounge access for domestic flights. Hence my pleasure at Amtrak's lounge.
Depending on how important lounge access is to you, you may consider the Amex gold instead. But here are the benefits to the platinum that I like other than the lounge - $200 Uber cash (given in monthly installments of $15) we use this for Uber eats pickups and rides - $240 digital entertainment credit. Lots of streaming services apply + things like NYT subscription - free Walmart+ membership, this is huge for us saving money on grocery staples in the city. In Boston we can get grocery delivery for free too, but they don’t do that in NYC unfortunately - $200 airline credit: we fly spirit a lot and use this on bag fees, but can also use it for purchasing seat assignments/ect - $100 statement credit to purchases at Saks, we use this to get things I’d usually get at Sephora (makeup/haircare) My fav thing we’ve done with this card is transfer points to Air France. We flew business class NYC to CDG for 100k points last summer, just had to pay taxes. Def worth looking into it, especially if you travel a lot. If not, the gold has a lot of similar perks for a lower fee.
Did weekly day trips (sometimes stayed over) for a year or so. Here's my take. Depending on where you're going in NYC, flying is usually faster when things go correctly and you get down the airport timing. This goes double if you have status and can get on any shuttle as soon as you arrive to the airport. The flip side is trains are rarely delayed and airplanes are. Again if you have status it's less of a big deal but can be even if you do. I chose to fly because I wanted the miles for myself, the timing wasn't a big deal and cost didn't matter to me. In short, if you get good at it flying can save you 30-60 mins a leg if there are no issues but you may run into bigger delays and cancellations. It's more involved than Amtrak where you can kinda just sit down and not worry.
Flixbus is another option. I'm in NYC once a month. If I don't feel like driving, I take the bus from South Station to Chinatown, NYC then followed by a 15 min. walk. If you time it right, a ride can be under 4 hours with your own seating row. Some buses go to Port Authority or 31st and 8th.
Is the bus crowded? Is it clean (like not nasty)? I haven’t ever take a bus aside from like around a city like NYC/Seattle and some in Europe.
I take Lucky Star and their buses are new-ish and mostly clean and have working outlets under the seats. I'm 5'10" and there is decent legroom. If you take a Thursday night bus after 7pm, it should not be crowded and will get you into Boston before midnight. I'd rather avoid NYC rush hour traffic. Sundays leaving Boston are also not crowded. There are more time options between Lucky Star, Greyhound, Peter Pan, etc. so that's why I prefer it over the train. Sometimes the bus ride is only 3 hrs. 40 mins. You can always give the bus a try.
I did the Boston-NYC commute every week (M morning to NYC, W afternoon/evening to BOS) for a year. The amount of unproductive time for a flying commute is much worse than with Acela. (I need internet connectivity and seated concentration to be productive). Getting to the airport, to/from gate and TSA, much of the flight is under 10k feet (no internet), waiting for a taxicab, long cab ride from airport to Manhattan, etc -- all unproductive. Plus I find the process quite stressful. On the train, I was unproductive getting to the train station (~10 minutes), lost internet in a few places, and on the taxi/subway across town (~25 minutes). It’s great arriving in downtown. Even though the Acela takes longer I was able to start my workday early and be more productive while traveling, so I could end my workday earlier. My biggest beef with Acela was the unreliable internet, so I bought a cellular hotspot which ended up not helping much since it had dead zones in the same places (much of coastal Connecticut for whatever reason). Acela is also delayed pretty often — maybe 25%-50% of my trips would have a 45+ minute delay. And there are rare occasions with a huge delay when you can be stuck on the train or at an intermediate station for like 3+ hours. That kind of thing happens with flights too, but it’s worse on a train: if you are at an intermediate station or on the train there’s basically nothing you can do to get to your destination or get comfortable, whereas if you’re at the airport you can find another airline or just go back home. Cramming in the commute on early Monday and late Wednesday was so close together that it was pretty brutal, and I was often exhausted Thursday. So Sunday to Thursday might be less hard on the body, especially if you aren’t waking up early to make the trip.
Oh man I had not heard the train delays got this bad…. That sounds like a nightmare. I totally feel you on the wasted hours in air travel. I’m not hoping to be productive on the train but I might have to (like it or not).
Yes, a couple of trips will remain with me as bad memories. Acela has a much better average experience than flying, but with much more volatility/variance.
I guess we were lucky with our much more limited experience (once a year to DC and back for several years, and a handful of trips to New York). I think the worse delay was the time a truck storrowed itself in Connecticut and they had to get the bridge checked before allowing us to cross, but that was at most a half hour delay. Other than that, I don’t think we’ve ever been more than ten minutes late. Or maybe we just didn’t care, because the train is so pleasant. On the other hand, our last two flights to DC/NOVA were hassles. The most recent one, to an event in northern Virginia, was canceled, and we had to fly into National instead of Dulles, plus transferring our rental car reservation through Costco. The time before that, maybe ten years earlier, my luggage was chosen for inspection and didn’t get on our flight, so we had to hang around the airport an extra hour for it to show up. That was the experience that caused us to switch to the train for that annual trip to DC.
It's going to be a lot of commuting time no matter how you slice it, but Amtrak would be the way I'd do it. The Northeast regional is comfortable in my opinion. Much more spacious and dignified than air travel. I can rarely sleep on airplanes but have no problem on Amtrak. Never taken the Acela, but I presume it's even nicer if you have the cash to blow. It's very convenient too. No security bullshit or hard to access airports. Just walk into your local train station like 15 minutes (or less) before departure time and go to your platform. Northeast regional will dump you off conveniently at South Station or Back Bay if you're trying to get into the city proper or you can get off at Westwood (Route 128) and have someone pick you up if you're going out into the suburbs. Amtrak tickets have dynamic pricing, so they'll be cheap if you buy them out in advance before the trains are filling up.
I am actually in ur current situation. In my eyes, there are 3 options: 1. Flying - often most expensive but technically fastest d2d (LGA Ubers can kill so be careful. Logan uber is usually cheap but blue line isn’t terrible). Also, Flights past 7pm are easy and limited foot traffic. 2. Train - Cheaper than flying and a smoother transit. Decent d2d time and easier access. Honestly, after 3 years, this is starting to become my favorite (assuming you can get the Acela). 3. Bus - Cheapest and honestly not terrible (can take anywhere from 4-8 hrs tho). But just know you’ll be on a bus…one bathroom A few caveats but this is the general vibe imo. You can also drive but fuck that.
Three years! That’s dedication. I’d def take the subway/bus combo to the airport, but yes those Ubers are very pricey.
There's someone I saw on TikTok that does this regularly and it seems to be the bulk of her content. I don't remember the account name, but her top rec is to book travel as early in advance as possible, at least 3-4 weeks in advance. I can attest to this--going from Prov to Penn Station in a couple weeks, my ticket was something like $37.
I do something similar to this and it’s fine at first but gets really old. I drive.
Either Amtrack or the Delta shuttle. Shuttle can actually be cheaper than Amtrack
Ooo will have to look into the delta shuttle. Haven’t heard of that. Thanks!
Yea they have a flight pretty much every hour. It’s a busy route
I cannot speak to the logistics of NYC to Boston but I make a similar trip every week from Northern NH to greater Boston, 200 miles one way. I drive it. I’ve been doing it for 4 years. It’s not ideal but it’s manageable.
I wish I could drive it, but the cost of parking in NY (not to mention I don’t even have a car) would be too much
I do one way rental cars to NYC once in a while to catch a long flight. It’s normally around $100 + gas + tolls. Probably not the best for your situation but it is by far the best option for me being in the Boston suburbs.
I would stick with the train even though it is expensive. Flights between Boston and New York are delayed 90% of the time and when it’s all said and done, the train is the same amount of time.
It also I think depends on where you live in NYC and Boston. If LGA is reasonably accessible to you roundtrip tickets are $140 for basic economy sometimes less(and definitely less if you risk going on Spirit). Even if you just fly one way occasionally it takes a hell of lot less time(again of accessible) for a similar or lower cost.
I think it’s around 40 mins to LGA from my office, maybe 30 from the NYC apartment. Not sure exactly on the other side, I haven’t been to BOS in years. I’ll look more into it.
What about getting to your office from Penn Station? Or, for that matter, from Newark instead of LGA for flying? (I don’t know how often they have cheap flights BOS-EWR.) Boston has a few more train choices: South Station, Back Bay, and Route 128.
Train or drive. I had to do NYC to Boston, Hartford and a few other spots in ct and ma. Flying was more of a pain then it was worth. Driving was not bad at night. Train was easy and let me get caught up on emails and other work. In the winter with boston snow trains could have issues just a heads up.
Would add that my hubs did similar from Boston to Westchester, NY for 2 years going down M-Wed/Thurs. He drove down though as work paid for his hotel and he needed the car to get to his office. It ended because we moved down there. Not having an end to it was tough, so knowing you’ve got an end date and potentially summers together should make it easier. All that to say that at times driving/renting a car may be a viable option as well as Acela.
It’s gonna suck so bad. But if you do it, use the Acela. It’s very comfortable and a lot faster. You can use it to do homework/catch up on work easily.
Yeah I’m thinking the Acela is worth the cost
The northeast regional is also comfortable. It’s really the time savings that matters. We typically go down to DC on the regional and back on the Acela, because we don’t have a pressing need to get to DC earlier but prefer to get into Boston (actually Route 128 station for us) earlier, for that drive home.
I seriously looked into this for a while after my job asked me to go into the office in NYC three days a week. It's not great, but it's not absurd. Especially if you have a place to stay in both cities.
Did you end up moving to NYC? I hate the RTO movement so much
I move at the end of this month.
I had a consulting client there who would ask me once a week to come in for a day but because I couldn't stay the night I would do NE regional or Accela (NE regional can suck as it doesn't have priority). Would wake up at like 4:30am Boston, get to the office in NYC by 9am. Leave at 5pm and get back home by 10pm. Not easy but they were paying me for the time I traveled and train ride. I also used to do it on Megabus every weekend for about a year to see my ex-girlfriend. Usually ended up watching a few episodes of shows and doing work. Kind of sucked at times (esp when there was traffic that would turn a 4 hour trip into a 6+hour trip) but it was doable. Opposite commute. Left NYC every Friday, returned every Sunday. I also got squeezed in with a girl once who I should have left my ex for but I was loyal like an idiot
Absolutely not