Recommendations for travelling to NYC this Sun or Mon

I plan to travel to midtown NYC this Sun or possibly Mon, myself and probably one other. Coming from Worcester area. One possibility is driving to New Haven and taking Metro North. About $16 to park (no price break for sunday?), about $16 off-peak fare + $2.50 subway pp. Couple hours driving + couple hours on the train. Other options are to drive all the way if reasonable parking is available on a Sunday in NYC, ostensibly saving about 45 minutes. I like the flexibility of hourly service vs. buying a reserved seat on Amtrak for presumably more $$$.

Anyone recommend better stations or a different line? Should I consider the mode that shall not be named (bus?) I'm coming from New England presumably via Hartford area.

This is my first visit to NYC. Thought I'd ask the "experts" here. I apologize if this has been covered in other threads.

If you're going to take the train from New Haven, spend the extra 8 minutes and go the other 4 exits down 95 to West Haven. Parking is free on the weekend, and only $6 during the week.

Your Idea about driving to NY would set you back a lot of $$$$$, not only in tolls and fuel, but parking would cost you at least $22.

Don't drive in. I say this as someone who lives in NYC. Traffic is awful and parking expensive. It's not worth the high blood pressure.

I'd go against runningwithscalpels here and say drive to New Haven instead of West Haven simply because New Haven is a nice old city station with a lot of amenities (couple restaurants, newsstand, etc.) whereas West Haven on the weekend is basically just a platform-- the waiting room, as I found out myself on a cold November day last year, is locked up.

I think they might have re-evaluated that practice, although I believe for some stupid reason the waiting area closes at noon or something similarly ridiculous on Sundays.

Okay, went down to NYC on Monday. From West Haven it was about 2 hours for 69 miles. MNRR seems to run local to Stamford, then express to 125th st (Harlem). The parking pay machine requires you to insert the credit card and leave it inserted for 10 seconds before it is recognized. Between fumbling with the parking machine and my co-traveller using the bathroom we missed the train, which was on-time, by 1 minute and had to wait 30 minutes.

West Haven was very clean and nice. On return we found the lobby/bathroom closes at 6pm on weekday! Encountered a security guard walking around however, which is a nice to have.

M8 cars were nice and clean and sharp looking. Bathroom was clean, however the door would not latch. Glad I'm a guy. Very quiet. Cars seemed to have more side-to-side sway than I expected.

Conductor seemed pleasant, stated if we returned at peak time with off-peak ticket we could pay the difference on-board, no problem. Didn't test this as we returned late.

Grand Central Terminal tracks were quite dirty and ugly, which surprised me. Also very hot as all the trains had a/c running. On the way back it was hard to tell if I had the right train as they were not signed for the destination. Had to ask a passenger and consult MTA train time webpage.

Two hours for 69 miles is quite slow. Why aren't the trains faster? Might consider driving to Stamford next time depending on traffic and parking availability.

BandA wrote:Two hours for 69 miles is quite slow. Why aren't the trains faster? Might consider driving to Stamford next time depending on traffic and parking availability.

It's so slow because it stops everywhere north of Stamford. That's why I'd have some of those off peak & weekend trains skip Southport & Rowayton.

And be happy it only took you 2 hours to get to West Haven. I was on 1594 tonight (11:23 to New Haven) and it took almost 2 hours to get to Bridgeport because District C had us back track from north of Westport down to South Norwalk to travel on the inbound track, track 3. If you were going to West Haven on that train the trip probably would've been close to 2:30.

District C is on the Hudson Line, can we lock this now?

I am sure had you read schedule that 2 hours should not have been surprise.

Next time if you book 1 -2 weeks in advance you can usually snag an Amtrak ticket on a regional train for $29 between New Haven and Penn Station. With the AAA discount they offer (15%) this is practically the same fare as Metro North and they do the trip in only 1 hour 40 minutes (with a maximum of 3 stops between New Haven and NY Penn, many trains only making 1 stop in Stamford). You also get wifi on board and the cafe car to purchase food and beverages.

BandA wrote:Grand Central Terminal tracks were quite dirty and ugly, which surprised me. Also very hot as all the trains had a/c running. On the way back it was hard to tell if I had the right train as they were not signed for the destination. Had to ask a passenger and consult MTA train time webpage.

As long as the tracks aren't filled with trash and causing a third-rail fire hazard, there's not much motivation to keep them clean and shiny. Typical passengers are only concerned that their train is on time, not how clean or dirty the tracks look. Besides, most passengers don't see the tracks because there's a train sitting on them -- you'd have to go out of your way to see the tracks. If you thought the GCT tracks were bad, you must not have spent much time on the subway, where trash, all sorts of mysterious fluids, rodents and signs marking where rodenticide has been placed are a pretty common sight.

As far as finding the right train at GCT, there are plenty of monitors all over the terminal listing departures, the same exact info you'd see on the Train Time webpage and apps.

Still, glad you seemed to enjoy the ride, for the most part!

I've noticed most high-platform terminal stations have immensely dirty trackage areas - trash, mud, railroad detritus... For some reason I don't notice the same at low-level stations. I'm also only referring to large terminal stations, not 1-2 track country stations.

I meant the platform, not the track. Looked like it needed a cleaning and a refurbishment, which is hard to budget for a subsidized service.

The trip was fine.

Noticed the train floor was at least an inch above the platform at West Haven, but was even at Grand Central. Don't see that kind of variance on the MBTA system where high level platforms are available.

The platforms at GCT date back to the orignal construction,since the platforms were under cover for
ages after all the "overbuilding" on air rights,they are not subject to the weather,just diesel soot and steam leaks,
a good steam cleaning could help for apperance sake.
Water,and trash find their way in via the vents and drainage system for storm water,and careless passengers
that consider track level a trash "can"
As for door height vs platform height,the airbags might be a little over inflated on the cars,
not worth the time needed to adjust the leveling control, and the platform foundations do settle into the
the ground over time.