I’d appreciate any thoughts on airport shuttle options to campus - from JFK in this case but will probably be flying in to La Guardia or Hartford at some point also. The Yale transit site mentions CT Limo, Go Shuttle and Red Dot Shuttle as options from JFK.
It looks like Go is slightly cheaper ($55 versus $68 for CT Limo and $72 for Red Dot) but I’m mainly concerned with reliability and safe driving.
There are many other threads with advice on this topic, but as a New Yorker, here’s my advice. Skip the limo services and shuttles, as they are expensive, don’t run on time or on your schedule.
Instead, fly into La Guardia or JFK and take a taxi to the Harlem-125th Street Station (cost about $15 from LGA, $25 from JFK). Then take the Metro North train to New Haven (cost $22 off-peak, $28 peak): http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_form.cfm.
Thanks, it’s good to know about the Metro North option.
For what it’s worth, in looking at Yelp reviews, among the shuttles Go has the best rating (3 stars), then Red Dot (2 stars) and CT Limo (1 star).
FWIW:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18161192#Comment_18161192
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1354559-shuttle-from-bradley-airport-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/13824391#Comment_13824391
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1191413-jfk-to-yale-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/5889819#Comment_5889819
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/429450-traveling-to-yale-by-air-p1.html
Thanks for all the links gibby!
If you fly out of Newark, I think you can take the Metro North all the way.
Metro North trains don’t run in New Jersey. If you fly into Newark, you can either take a NJ transit bus or train (or a taxi) to Manhattan, then go to Grand Central to Metro North to New Haven. The other, more expensive, option is to take the Airtran from Newark Airport to Newark Penn Station and then take Amtrak to New Haven: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=am/am2Station/Station_Page&code=EWR
You could take Amtrak all the way from Newark airport to New Haven, although that would also be relatively expensive.
Thanks for the thoughts on Newark and I’ll add that to the mix for future flights.
If you fly on United (when they’re flying) they may include the cost of the Amtrak ride to and from New Haven to Newark in the ticket. Search on ZVE, which is the United designation for Union Station in New Haven.
I found that the Northeast Regional (Amtrak) 190, 172, 174, 94, 148, 178 run direct from Newark, Liberty to New Haven. Price runs from $36 to $85. Travel times run between 2:22 and 2:47 (Tailwinds?)
My son flies to Newark to start his second year in August. I’ll relay any comments on how he finds the route.
No need to take a taxi! From Laguardia, you can take the M60 bus to Harlem 125 for $2.75. Takes maybe 20 minutes. And from JFK, you can take the airtrain (or Q10 bus, to save the $5), and then the subway to Grand Central. Takes a bit over an hour.
I did take a taxi once when I arrived at JFK very late and was afraid I’d miss the last train to New Haven, but it cost $58 plus tip. Too expensive for me.
Also, unless the MTA fares have changed a lot in the last few months, the price from Grand Central to Union Station as of this spring was $16.50 off peak and $21.50 peak.
From Newark, you can usually get an amtrak directly to Union Station for $30, if you book well in advance.
My daughter ended up taking Go Shuttle this time from JFK to campus and it worked well. It was $55 and I paid in advance online so all she had to do was give the driver a tip. The shuttle dropped her at Phelps Gate. She said there were a couple of other Yale students on the shuttle plus a couple of other people going elsewhere in New Haven.
Our preference the last few years from either JFK or LGA was Go Shuttle as well–easy to schedule, convenient, and beats having to lug suitcases onto buses and trains.
Just checked the price of GO shuttle from LGA to New Haven online, it says $77, so assume that they have raised the price.
I still see $55 to Yale Phelps Gate for Go Shuttle. It says something about university ID required so perhaps rates are different for city of New Haven other than Yale. I guess maybe specific day/time could matter too if they have peak vs. off-peak pricing.
Ah, I see the $77 if I select home or office in New Haven. Right below that drop down, there’s one for local school and then it’s $55 for a Yale destination.
@canoe2015 Thank you for the info - after choosing Yale the price dropped to $55!
My kid hates, hates, hates the shuttle services and has tried CT Limo and GO limo multiple times. She does the M60 to 125th street and then MetroNorth or takes Amtrak, usually bundled as a connection to ZVE via EWR, mentioned earlier. On a recent trip her inbound trip to EWR, a flight delay made it impossible to connect to Amtrak so she had to take the airport bus into GCT and then pick up MetroNorth and it was a long trip.
Many of the shuttle services will have multiple stops along the way. I know that it took forever for CT Limo to get to the airport for us before. I would suggest Metro North as well- you have so many chances to catch a train and its cheaper. There are even some express trains with less stops. Amtrack is more expensive and you have to make the time the train leaves- there are not as many trains to choose from.