NEPATrainTraveler
Service Attendant
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2018
- Messages
- 178
"Many years since I was here"
That's the opening line to the song "New York Groove", and a line that felt extremely relevant to me as I arrived in NYC for the first time since 2019. In this trip report, you will see bus, Subway, Metro North, and the shortest Amtrak ride I have ever been on yet. The events of 2020 prevented me from traveling and even after things started getting back to normal, Martz Bus's schedules never did. Currently there are no busses from Wilkes-Barre to New York between 6:45 AM (7 AM if leaving from the mall) and 12:30 PM on weekdays. In the past, there were busses at 7:20 AM, 9:35 AM, and 9:55 AM, all of which I have ridden at some point or another during the pre-pandemic days (though I always boarded the 7:20 AM one at WVM, making my departure time 7:30 AM instead of 7:20 AM). The 7:20 AM, aka Schedule 113, has since turned into the 6:20 AM, the 9:35 AM no longer exists at all, and the 9:55 AM is now weekends only. Since I was taking this trip during the week, the 9:55 AM was not an option (if I was to leave on a weekend day, the 9:55 AM would be the only bus between 6:45 AM and 12:30 PM). On top of this, the Shopper Special/Curbside Express no longer exists and the Big Apple Daily special is no longer offered either. I waited and waited for Martz to bring back the 9:35 AM run or at least have the 9:55 AM run on weekdays again or put Schedule 113 back to its original time slot, but none of this has happened so far. I was severely tempted to try and get to Scranton for FlixBus or Greyhound since they sometimes have departures that would get me to NYC in between the arrival times of Schedule 115 and Schedule 121 (aka the 12:30 PM run), but the horrendous reviews have made me stay away from those companies. Tired of waiting for Martz to fix their schedules and weary of Greyhound and FlixBus, I decided to work with what Martz currently gives me and and do an overnight trip to NYC by taking Schedule 121 to NYC and then taking an early afternoon bus back to PA the next day. Amtrak service to northeast PA can't come soon enough!
I took this trip during the end of July/beginning of August. The weather was hot, though not as bad as my August 2019 visit to New York. The bus ride itself was fine, though for reasons that were never really explained (we were just given a vague "safety" as the reason) we had to switch busses at the Stroudsburg/DWG station, resulting in us being late by about 15 minutes-ish. When I got off the bus at Port Authority, it was as if no time had passed at all since my last visit to the city. I quickly fell into my usual routine of making my way to the subway station and buying a MetroCard, even though OMNY exists now. My first subway ride of the trip was the A from PABT to Penn Station, a ride that has often been the start of many a NYC solo trip for me. I won't cover every subway ride in this trip report, but I will bring up ones I feel are interesting. When I got off at the Penn Station stop, I thought there would be signage for Moynihan, but I couldn't see any, so I exited into the old station as I have done many times before, but I was amazed by what I saw.
I barely recognized the place. The renovations made Penn Station look way nicer than it did in 2019. It is much more brightly lit now and the ceilings are higher. It was the stairs leading down to the tracks that made me realize I was in the LIRR concourse. One downside to this new Penn Station is the lack of shops and food places. Gone are things like the Kmart (whose presence in Penn Station always amused me to no end) and the McDonald's. I took a wrong turn at some point and missed the hallway that led to the West End Concourse and instead found myself at the old Amtrak section of the station. The waiting room was still there, but gone were the masses of people waiting for trains by the departure boards. I think the only people who were waiting for a train were in the waiting room. The Auntie Anne's is still there though. I ended up exiting to the street and as much as I wanted to see Moynihan, I lost time making the wrong turn and decided to just check into my hotel. I stayed at the New Yorker hotel. The hotel is pretty nice, check in was smooth, the room was a bit small and dated, but it suited my solo traveler needs just fine.
After that I rode the subway to Union Square, walked around a bit and then made my way to Grand Central. I always like going to Grand Central from Union Square via the 4/5. I took the 5 to get to Grand Central and for the first time ever I rode in the first car on the train. I even got to see a bit out of the front window, mainly the turn the train takes to go into Grand Central. The station still has its great old fashioned charm, but I wanted to see its most recent addition, Grand Central Madison. GCM looks nice, but much like the newly renovated Penn Station, food and shops are lacking. I also feel that while the architecture tries to resemble GCT, the white marble makes it look too bright and modern to me, so GCM never truly matches or feels like it is a part of Grand Central to me. The escalator to get down to the platforms is super long. I was severely tempted to ride a LIRR train out to Woodside or Jamaica, but lost my nerve due to the ever present feeling that my time was limited, so I literally just rode the escalator down and then turned around and went back up. As I walked back to GCT I kept seeing people with Yankees shirts on. I knew there was a game that night and was super super tempted to go (mainly so I could get MNRR crossed off my bucket list). I resisted temptation to ride MNRR that night, but as you will see my resistance would falter the next day. After leaving GCT, I visited my favorite book store Book Off. It is a really cool place featuring books, movies, games, and music in both Japanese and English. In the past I used to come out of that store with a basket full of cheap manga and anime, but this time all I ended up getting was an SNL DVD for around $10. I spent way more time than I should have in that store. I had a Broadway show I had to get to and I almost ran out of time for dinner. Luckily, the service was quick at the 8th Ave Shake Shack. Shake Shack may be a chain, but it is not one I have here in the W-B area and besides Shake Shack started in New York. I had a double cheeseburger and fries with a drink, which was a little under $20. More expensive than McDonald's, but cheaper than if I had gone to someplace like Applebee's. Shake Shack burgers are better quality than McD's too.
The show I saw was called "The Shark is Broken." It was a comedy about the making of Jaws. It was pretty funny, reminded me of a good SNL sketch at times. The tickets were pretty cheap (by Broadway standards) too, so that was nice. After the show, I rode the subway again. I had never ridden the subway at 10 PM before, but I made it through without incident. I was going to go to a bar called Barcade, but when I got off at 23rd street, I felt uncomfortable with how deserted the area was. I was already pushing past my comfort zone by riding the subway so late that I just didn't feel comfortable venturing further to 24th street, where the bar is, so late. So, I ended up taking the subway back to the hotel, but did so in a way that was so convoluted (because I wanted to arrive on 8th ave and not 7th) and involved a transfer that required me to walk along 14th street, that I may as well have braved the journey to Barcade. I took the 1 to 14th street then walked across 14th to the 6th Ave L, then the L to 8th Ave and then the E train to 34th street. All of the stations and trains I was on had at least a handful of people, except for a brief moment at the 6th Ave L stop where I was the only person on the platform. That felt freaky. When I walked up the stairs to exit to the street at 8th Ave, I saw the Empire State Building all lit up. It was a beautiful sight. I did take a picture, but after I had crossed the street. I went to CVS and got some snacks and drinks to take back to my room. After having a night time snack and pondering what I would do with the few hours I would have left the next day, I fell asleep.
(To Be Continued due to character limit...)
That's the opening line to the song "New York Groove", and a line that felt extremely relevant to me as I arrived in NYC for the first time since 2019. In this trip report, you will see bus, Subway, Metro North, and the shortest Amtrak ride I have ever been on yet. The events of 2020 prevented me from traveling and even after things started getting back to normal, Martz Bus's schedules never did. Currently there are no busses from Wilkes-Barre to New York between 6:45 AM (7 AM if leaving from the mall) and 12:30 PM on weekdays. In the past, there were busses at 7:20 AM, 9:35 AM, and 9:55 AM, all of which I have ridden at some point or another during the pre-pandemic days (though I always boarded the 7:20 AM one at WVM, making my departure time 7:30 AM instead of 7:20 AM). The 7:20 AM, aka Schedule 113, has since turned into the 6:20 AM, the 9:35 AM no longer exists at all, and the 9:55 AM is now weekends only. Since I was taking this trip during the week, the 9:55 AM was not an option (if I was to leave on a weekend day, the 9:55 AM would be the only bus between 6:45 AM and 12:30 PM). On top of this, the Shopper Special/Curbside Express no longer exists and the Big Apple Daily special is no longer offered either. I waited and waited for Martz to bring back the 9:35 AM run or at least have the 9:55 AM run on weekdays again or put Schedule 113 back to its original time slot, but none of this has happened so far. I was severely tempted to try and get to Scranton for FlixBus or Greyhound since they sometimes have departures that would get me to NYC in between the arrival times of Schedule 115 and Schedule 121 (aka the 12:30 PM run), but the horrendous reviews have made me stay away from those companies. Tired of waiting for Martz to fix their schedules and weary of Greyhound and FlixBus, I decided to work with what Martz currently gives me and and do an overnight trip to NYC by taking Schedule 121 to NYC and then taking an early afternoon bus back to PA the next day. Amtrak service to northeast PA can't come soon enough!
I took this trip during the end of July/beginning of August. The weather was hot, though not as bad as my August 2019 visit to New York. The bus ride itself was fine, though for reasons that were never really explained (we were just given a vague "safety" as the reason) we had to switch busses at the Stroudsburg/DWG station, resulting in us being late by about 15 minutes-ish. When I got off the bus at Port Authority, it was as if no time had passed at all since my last visit to the city. I quickly fell into my usual routine of making my way to the subway station and buying a MetroCard, even though OMNY exists now. My first subway ride of the trip was the A from PABT to Penn Station, a ride that has often been the start of many a NYC solo trip for me. I won't cover every subway ride in this trip report, but I will bring up ones I feel are interesting. When I got off at the Penn Station stop, I thought there would be signage for Moynihan, but I couldn't see any, so I exited into the old station as I have done many times before, but I was amazed by what I saw.
I barely recognized the place. The renovations made Penn Station look way nicer than it did in 2019. It is much more brightly lit now and the ceilings are higher. It was the stairs leading down to the tracks that made me realize I was in the LIRR concourse. One downside to this new Penn Station is the lack of shops and food places. Gone are things like the Kmart (whose presence in Penn Station always amused me to no end) and the McDonald's. I took a wrong turn at some point and missed the hallway that led to the West End Concourse and instead found myself at the old Amtrak section of the station. The waiting room was still there, but gone were the masses of people waiting for trains by the departure boards. I think the only people who were waiting for a train were in the waiting room. The Auntie Anne's is still there though. I ended up exiting to the street and as much as I wanted to see Moynihan, I lost time making the wrong turn and decided to just check into my hotel. I stayed at the New Yorker hotel. The hotel is pretty nice, check in was smooth, the room was a bit small and dated, but it suited my solo traveler needs just fine.
After that I rode the subway to Union Square, walked around a bit and then made my way to Grand Central. I always like going to Grand Central from Union Square via the 4/5. I took the 5 to get to Grand Central and for the first time ever I rode in the first car on the train. I even got to see a bit out of the front window, mainly the turn the train takes to go into Grand Central. The station still has its great old fashioned charm, but I wanted to see its most recent addition, Grand Central Madison. GCM looks nice, but much like the newly renovated Penn Station, food and shops are lacking. I also feel that while the architecture tries to resemble GCT, the white marble makes it look too bright and modern to me, so GCM never truly matches or feels like it is a part of Grand Central to me. The escalator to get down to the platforms is super long. I was severely tempted to ride a LIRR train out to Woodside or Jamaica, but lost my nerve due to the ever present feeling that my time was limited, so I literally just rode the escalator down and then turned around and went back up. As I walked back to GCT I kept seeing people with Yankees shirts on. I knew there was a game that night and was super super tempted to go (mainly so I could get MNRR crossed off my bucket list). I resisted temptation to ride MNRR that night, but as you will see my resistance would falter the next day. After leaving GCT, I visited my favorite book store Book Off. It is a really cool place featuring books, movies, games, and music in both Japanese and English. In the past I used to come out of that store with a basket full of cheap manga and anime, but this time all I ended up getting was an SNL DVD for around $10. I spent way more time than I should have in that store. I had a Broadway show I had to get to and I almost ran out of time for dinner. Luckily, the service was quick at the 8th Ave Shake Shack. Shake Shack may be a chain, but it is not one I have here in the W-B area and besides Shake Shack started in New York. I had a double cheeseburger and fries with a drink, which was a little under $20. More expensive than McDonald's, but cheaper than if I had gone to someplace like Applebee's. Shake Shack burgers are better quality than McD's too.
The show I saw was called "The Shark is Broken." It was a comedy about the making of Jaws. It was pretty funny, reminded me of a good SNL sketch at times. The tickets were pretty cheap (by Broadway standards) too, so that was nice. After the show, I rode the subway again. I had never ridden the subway at 10 PM before, but I made it through without incident. I was going to go to a bar called Barcade, but when I got off at 23rd street, I felt uncomfortable with how deserted the area was. I was already pushing past my comfort zone by riding the subway so late that I just didn't feel comfortable venturing further to 24th street, where the bar is, so late. So, I ended up taking the subway back to the hotel, but did so in a way that was so convoluted (because I wanted to arrive on 8th ave and not 7th) and involved a transfer that required me to walk along 14th street, that I may as well have braved the journey to Barcade. I took the 1 to 14th street then walked across 14th to the 6th Ave L, then the L to 8th Ave and then the E train to 34th street. All of the stations and trains I was on had at least a handful of people, except for a brief moment at the 6th Ave L stop where I was the only person on the platform. That felt freaky. When I walked up the stairs to exit to the street at 8th Ave, I saw the Empire State Building all lit up. It was a beautiful sight. I did take a picture, but after I had crossed the street. I went to CVS and got some snacks and drinks to take back to my room. After having a night time snack and pondering what I would do with the few hours I would have left the next day, I fell asleep.
(To Be Continued due to character limit...)
