Orion316

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's false -- show me a train that makes it in 15 min. LIRR from Penn to Jamaica is either 20 or 25 minutes, depending on the train. For the OP, when I used to this monthly, and had the routine down, it was an hour door to door from 14th street and 7th ave to inside security at T2.

As others have said it's about 20/25 min on the LIRR, + 10 minutes on air train + 5 minutes for waiting for air train + 5 minutes for walking from air train to terminal. Add in miscellaneous buying tickets, waiting for a train and you have an hour.

mfr2000

I go out to JFK about once a month. I suggest you take the A train as it is Express everywhere. Once you get to Howard Beach station walk upstairs and take the airtrain to your terminal. This can take up to 15 mins. I would reserve about 1.25 hrs travel time to get to your terminal from Penn Station (most likely it will be less). If your flight departs at 1940 I would get on the train leaving Penn station at about 1645 to be safe, but do consider rush hour (if its a weekday). You might have a packed train and not get a seat. If you have much luggage this might be uncomfortable. In that case a taxi or shared airport limo is your best choice.

audio-nut

Easy there Lieu. You might want to brush up on your reading comprehension before accusing someone of being a drug user.
He was specifically talking about the E train. Either way your LIRR+AirTrain "estimate" is about as best case scenario as it can get.

orlandodlplat

The LIRR might be "reliably quicker" than the E train, but that assumes there are no problems with the LIRR. In fact, the only thing "reliable" about the LIRR is that it's unreliable. It's subject to all kinds of random "switching problems," many of which are Amtrak's fault, thus relying on Amtrak to repair. The LIRR is still running at just 70% of capacity at Penn Station, because of flooding from Hurricane Sandy LAST MONTH, which Amtrak still hasn't resolved and likely won't until January.

Basically, the LIRR is the best bet in a vacuum, but be prepared with a backup plan (the E train, a cab, etc) should it go awry.

FlySkyTeam

Better yet.. if you're going to Jamaica from Penn Station on a weekend (sat/sun) make sure you buy a City Ticket versus an Off Peak. The city ticket is $3.75, but is only valid on that day.

1. Go to the Green LIRR Ticket Machines
2. Select Penn Station to Jamaica
3. Look on the bottom right for "City Ticket" (could be under other ticket options)
4. Select the additional $5 Airtrain Metrocard add on as well

You're all set, and on your way to the airport for $8.75!

rwoman

Wow - good to know - thanks for sharing!

FlySkyTeam

It is a little hidden secret with MTA LIRR Tickets..
http://www.mta.info/mta/cityticket.htm



Buying a CityTicket

You can purchase tickets at New York City LIRR or MNR ticket windows or ticket machines at stations in the program. Not all stations have ticket windows open on weekends, but all stations have ticket machines.

LIRR tickets may be purchased with cash or personal checks at ticket windows or with cash or credit/debit/ATM cards at ticket machines. MNR tickets may be purchased with cash or credit/debit/ATM cards at both ticket windows and ticket machines. You cannot use MetroCard to pay for CityTicket.

CityTicket cannot be purchased on board a train; if you buy tickets on board the train you have to pay the full on-board off-peak fare.

Tickets go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday and must be used on the day of purchase. A grace period allows you to travel until 4 a.m. Sunday or Monday morning for tickets purchased on Saturdays or Sundays respectively. Check the appropriate schedules to determine if service to your destination is available.

Look up train timetables on this website, or at the station. When purchasing your tickets at a ticket window or ticket machine, you will be asked for your starting point and destination. If your trip falls within the CityTicket area, you will be offered the option to purchase CityTicket.

If you are traveling with children, remember that children under 5 ride free and up to four children 5 to 11 per adult or guardian pay just 75 cents.

Restrictions

• CityTicket is valid only for travel on Saturday or Sunday.
• CityTicket is valid only on the date of purchase.
• CityTicket must be purchased at ticket windows or ticket machines.
• CityTicket cannot be bought on board trains.
• LIRR CityTicket is not valid for travel to or from Belmont Park station (which is only open during special events), or the Far Rockaway Station (because these trips travel through Nassau county).
• MNR CityTicket is not valid on New Haven Line trains between Manhattan and Fordham Station.
• CityTicket cannot be combined for travel between New York City stations and points outside the city.
• CityTicket is valid for direct travel only; you cannot change direction at junction points.
• There is no free transfer between the railroads and subways or buses.
• In order to avoid abuse, CityTicket has a limited ticket refund policy. You may apply by mail for a refund within 30 days; a $10.00 service fee per ticket will be charged. If there is a possibility that your plans may change, consider purchasing your return ticket later in the day.

adamj023

I already gave all the websites to check which is best.

Cab is generally fastest followed by LIRR Generally speaking but this changes all the time.

Right now the east river tunnels are still problematic due to the flooding from the storm and trains are being cancelled. But hopefully they get those issues resolved soon.

FlySkyTeam

You're right, but how many people know about the CityTicket? I feel that is not well know and it is hard to find on the machines, and people 9/10 times default to "off peak"

adamj023

CityTicket is new and a pilot program. But it has restrictions. However yes, it is good to know about and useful for people traveling within restrictions on weekends.

It is unclear if I would have noticed CityTicket on the machines and could have also defaulted to offpeak. But the offpeak is more flexible as well.

Cityticket for weekend same day travel is indeed a good deal and your link surely did save someone money who read it.

Not sure if I heard of City ticket before myself. I know the MTA tries out new fares, and the like all the time using its machines.

Joseph J. Lhota has been excellent for the MTA and I would put my support behind him for Mayor perhaps.

Out of all the mayoral candidates running right now for NYC the field is very weak (unrelated political rant)

MTA still has storm issues to deal with and the LIRR's top speed is only about 80 Miles per hour. MTA is acquiring new trains in the future due to the Grand Central project and I wish they would work to make the LIRR a high speed rail system. China just finished a project that is 311 mph on a bullet train they tested year end 2011, while in the USA train speeds are weak at around 80mph whereby Ascela isn't much faster running the northeastern corridor route. And since sans traffic cars can give more direct routings, a cab winds up being faster to the airports because they don't have to deal with passenger stops.

A fast bullet train would resolve that but the problem is you still have lots of stops. USA needs to get with the program and I wish the MTA would work on higher speed trains in the next train deliveries which have yet to be delivered.

The LIRR still has a mix of the older trains and the more modern ones, and I HATE getting stuck on the old trains because you have the crew who has to manually work the trains, while the newer trains are more automated and you aren't delayed due to train personnel.

I think all these factors come into play in this forum, including City Ticket for those where it makes sense and this was a good informative forum.

Tower18

Totally disagree. The A is only the right choice if you're in Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan. Otherwise, the E (or LIRR) is faster. The other thing with the A is knowing *which* A to take...there are 2. Off-peak, the A runs every ~10 minutes, which means the two branches each run only every 15-20 minutes. This could mean a rather long wait. Or, you could accidentally get on a Lefferts train and get very confused.

BTW to the other poster who mentioned Howard Beach, Howard Beach is open and is the new terminal for non-Lefferts trains.

FlySkyTeam

Not to make this into an MTA forum, but one of the key reasons the MTA cannot run the trains faster is due to the tracks and switching in Jamaica. I agree they should focus on cleaning up that mess and have a few straight tracks they can run high speed trains on. If you ever look at the Airtrain station from the LIRR platform, you'll notice two tracks which are separate from the rest of the Jamaica system, and run straight.. They were installed two years ago, and my hope was that trains should bypass JAM at a high rate of speed..

NoSleepTillMnhtn

Especially valuable to know for people who value time and cost equally (like me)... if it's the weekend, I always grab a City Ticket on LIRR as it saves gobs of time because the E/F are often NOT express subways on weekends (esp late evenings). For only $3.75 more, boom!

FlySkyTeam

That is a good point.. for $1 buck more, go express on the weekends on the LIRR!

adamj023

They wanted to build a second mainline track but it was postponed. I am not sure of the AirTrain's speed but an employee got killed on the system and the trains are very insecure when moving through the tracks. I was on the AirTrain myself and I would not have wanted it to go at a higher rate of speed based on the way the train and tracks were designed unfortunately.

They are adding new tracks for LIRR service to Grand Central but unclear what the speed will be of the newly ordered trains.

Some of the switches were still being replaced apparently which were decades old, but they seem to have modernized the system over time. But we haven't seen any speed increases yet.

I agree in that for say Jamaica to Penn Station and Woodside to Grand Central, these segments should be high speed bullet trains.

Get as much high speed as you can even if it costs to buildout.

Other cities have much better and evolved transportation systems. While I give Lhota credit with the MTA, as it is a much larger scale system than others, the MTA has not had any focus on high speed rail which is disappointing.