Originally Posted by
Phudnik
I'm not sure I'd agree that getting to EWR is necessarily a huge challenge -- from Center City or University City or the Eastern Main Line it's easy enough to get to 30th Street Station and thence to EWR -- but it will certainly take more time.
Agreed, but remember you have to deal with getting to 30th St Station, traffic on I-676 or the Schuykill can be absolutely brutal at rush hour.
Just from City Ave to 30th St Station (about 6 miles) can easily take 45 minutes (I know, I've done it many times). As you wrote, there are alternate routes (and it depends where you live), but in my experience almost every major highway in and around Philly is a parking lot at rush hour.
Then, of course, you have to take the train, which will add at least 90 minutes all told to your journey (boarding the train, the ride from 30th St Station to EWR, the EWR AirTrain ride).
Personally, that is not something I would do just to avoid flying the occasional US flight out of PHL.