God it rocks so hard they arriving at JFK is a completely baffling experience unless you’ve been there several times. Trying to get to the city? Here’s a weird train that goes to different places and one is better than the other most of the time. Have fun figuring it out!
You can take the LIRR from Jamaica to two different places in Manhattan and even if you want to go to the east side it’s probably faster to go to Penn Station because the trains run more often and you don’t need to traverse a multi-story labyrinth to get to the street
A labyrinth built because in the US state governments allow bullshit like the Metro North head not wanting to share "his tracks" with the LIRR even though they nominally sit under the same agency.
My favorite little detail at the labyrinth is having to first drag your luggage down (good odds you land at a point where there's only an up escalator and a staircase, no down escalator) just to get to go back up the huge escalator. And of course the walk to the subway after that.
Same logical defect with the new PABT, shifting it a block away from the subway access.
Flying in there when I’m traveling for work is the best / worst. “I need to get home and don’t really care about the cost because it’s 11:45pm on a Wednesday.” —> take the air train three stops to get to a taxi stand and participate in a very odd taxi assignment ritual, hit the road 45 mins later.
It’s still wild to me that - by far - the easiest airport from which to get to Manhattan by transit is Newark
If you’re willing to take a bus, and want to go uptown, LaGuardia is great
It’s been a few years, but my recollection of that bus is *slow*
I don’t remember it being that slow. At least it’s a direct ride, without having to do AirTrain - LIRR - Subway.
The F to the Q60 from Rockefeller Center is the quickest airport commute for me. JFK is a little longer and EWR is a no go for me
I don’t know, can you even say you’ve seen New York if you haven’t seen Howard Beach from the other side of a dirty A train window? I don’t think so.
That said, the simplicity of getting from the Minneapolis airport to downtown blew my mind.
This isn't just JFK. American airports are an absurdly shitty experience across the board and wayfinding that's somewhere between nonexistent and garbage is one of the uniting features.
I've made it all the way from gate to transit in plenty of foreign airports on my first time through just following the signs. In US airports not even a guarantee there's clear signage outside your gate saying which way goes out of the airport, good odds you've got to just guess/follow the crowd
until you maybe, eventually, see some clear signage.
The Port Authority should make a big sign that says “you likely want to take the AirTrain to Jamaica and the the LIRR to Grand Central unless you’re pretty sure you shouldn’t”
Yeah, IDK, would not necessarily recommend. I've done it tons of time when I knew what I was getting into. Just do the flat fare otherwise.
Chicago! Now there’s a city with a train situation that makes sense. This is the nicest thing I’ll ever say about Chicago.
denver, toronto (new!), sf, oakland, seattle..........
Minneapolis!
The train only goes to the Big Mall, Airport, and Ballpark. Kind of perfect.
wow this is news to me but sounds like a slay
big mall that also used to be a ballpark
Cleveland (of all places) has a train from the airport every 15 minutes!
MKE! The train goes to Milwaukee AND Chicago direct from the airport.
Seattle: “there’s one train. Take it.”
Don’t go to Tacoma if you can help it”
From the Seattle airport, the train won’t even take you there! Maybe a bus. The train either takes you to Seattle proper, or south of the airport to, uh, somewhere else
The lack of connections between the L and Amtrak is annoying, but at least there's a direct connection to the airport!
and a drinking habit that also makes sense
It’s a good train station
Honestly, the AirTrain wouldn’t be too bad if it was way more frequent and a free transfer to/from the subway. A one-seat ride would be nice but it’s not the biggest priority transit-wise and Jamaica + Howard Beach do give you a mix of different lines to take.
Though I do wonder what masochist would purposely take the J train to/from the AirTrain if they don’t live near the line.
I am not a New Yorker. I love visiting. I remember once riding in a cab talking to the driver. He was just shitting on the city. Talking about all the negatives. So I asked him if he was planning on leaving. “Where am I going to go? Naw” I think he might have designed the airports.