Originally Posted by
Cory6188
The EWR AirTrain has been a super unreliable mess, but assuming it's operating normally, I'd give yourself about 20 mins or so to get from the EWR train station to Terminal B. For a 10:30 am flight, TSA for that section of Terminal B should be fairly quiet (Precheck or not).
Only you can decide how important lounge access is to you, but the ride is so short from NYP to EWR that I certainly wouldn't care about the actual ride experience on NJT vs. Amtrak in terms of being worth any cost difference. One upside of NJT is that once you get to Penn, there's a decent chance of an earlier NJT train you can hop on that stops at EWR, since NJT tickets aren't tied to any particular train time. With Amtrak, you're beholden (more or less) to the one you're ticketed on.
Do you have SkyClub access? If so, I'd say use any excess time for the SkyClub at EWR instead of the lounge at NYP. The SkyClub at EWR is actually pretty nice and then you aren't worrying about timing and potential TSA issues.
In terms of NJT vs Amtrak, there is virtually no distance on this ride. I take whatever is better for my timing and don't really bother with who operates it (parents live in Manhattan so regularly take this train route when visiting and going in/out of EWR)