If You're Going To Ride, Ride The NJTransit...

                                                Newark Penn Station

Staying in Newark and working in Manhattan is really not too inconvenient. The hotel is across the street from the Newark Penn Station, and getting to the train takes all of 5 minutes.

                            The hustling, bustling morning commuters

In the morning the extremely clean station is alive with hundreds of people going to work either in NYC or other parts of New Jersey, with some even commuting as far as Pennsylvania (the "Penn" part of the station...). It is quite the well orchestrated ballet, but if you don't know which train boards at which track (their are a lot of different trains - the New Jersey PATH, NJTransit. Amtrak, etc., and there are a lot of different tracks (9, I think), it's easy to get confused.

However, the information window is staffed by incredibly polite, helpful people - if you have trouble reading the schedule they'll actually print out a sheet of paper with the specific train you need and it's time and track.

              Do not stand on the yellow line, and watch the gap (mind the gap if you're British)

The trains vary in age, but for the most part they are newer, well maintained, and very comfortable. They can be crowded in the morning, though chances are you'll have little or no problem finding a seat if you get to the station early enough.

                                     New York Penn Station for the ride back to Newark

The ride back to Newark at the end of the day is via New York's Penn Station on 7th and 31st. The New York Penn is just as busy as the Newark Penn, only more so due to the greater number of tracks and trains (there are 18 or 19 tracks at the NY Penn).

All the people at both stations would seem to invite a large number of miscreants, but that is not the case. For starters, both stations have clearly posted rules and regulations, and second, both stations are well-policed (lots of police dogs, too). That show of force works very well at keeping order.

                                           Artsy-fartsy pic of New York Penn Station

The really interesting thing for me is, of course, all the different people. I love people as I am somewhat of an extrovert. New York and New Jersey are both populated by some seriously great personalities, and catching snippets of their conversations is worth the commute alone.

One morning on the ride in I caught a great dialogue between two men complaining about their respective jobs and the office politics that made going in such a headache. It was great.