Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulDavis1968
Team 2053 is considering going to the The New York City Regional this year. We are a small team of around 25 students with about 6 mentors. We are trying to figure out where to stay and how to get to the venue reliably and safely. We have talked about staying in NJ for cost and taking the Lincoln tunnel but we worry about traffic. We have discussed NJ transit over to Penn Station and then 3->7 to the event. We mentors worry about kids getting lost with this option. Does anyone have any suggestions of how to do this timely and safely?
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As someone who lives in Westchester...
Don't drive. You don't want to deal with getting across the Hudson in a car during rush hour. Just don't.
Walking is going to take about the same amount of time as the subway route you propose. The Javits Center is about a 15 minute walk from Penn Station, right down 34th St. It's 4 avenue (long) blocks so it's a bit of a hike, but I did it while getting to the regional last year and it wasn't that bad.
If you want to stay in NJ, you could also take the PATH train in to 33rd St and walk/subway from there. It'll be one Ave. block longer to walk, or you could take the N/Q/R -> 42nd and transfer to the 7. Again, probably about the same amount of time.
There's not really a great way to get a large group of students between those points, but that's what I'd recommend.
EDIT: some useful notes about the Penn Station subway...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Billfred
1) Make sure everyone has the transit instructions and a working understanding of the system. (That includes making sure they know the trains operate by number or letter, not color...though I think the 1, 2, and 3 trains all stop at both Penn Station and at Times Square where you'd take the S to Grand Central to get to the 7.))
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Penn Station actually has two separate subway stations (one for the 1/2/3 at 7th Ave and one for the A/C/E at 8th Ave). They don't connect, so make sure you enter at the right side. The stations at Penn also have a non-standard layout where the express and local trains are on different platforms (
see here). So if you take the 1, make sure you're on the side platform, or the middle platform (
going the right direction) for the 2/3. It won't matter which one you take because it's one stop on both to 42nd, but the 1 will probably be less crowded.
Also, you can pick up the 7 at Times Square/42nd and take that to the newly opened Hudson Yards station at 34th and 11th Ave, right in front of the Javits Center (would have been really nice to have that last year...)