Living in Hoboken has its advantages.
A bar, deli, restaurant, cleaners and 30 nail salons almost on every block.
And being that this is the West West Village…the unofficial sixth borough…Mile Square residents have the easiest commute to the Big Apple in the state.
On days like this, therein lies the rub…
With many companies telling its Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan residents to stay at home because of the MTA strike, New Jersey residents, and especially Hobokenites, are told that this version of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off need not apply to them. The PATH trains are still running, as is the NJ Transit 126 Bus and NY Waterway ferry, so the instant excuses to sleep in a few hours later have been tossed aside like a dirty diaper.
Still, the inconvenience for those commuting from Hoboken certainly exists. Even if arriving in the city at 42nd and 8th’s Port Authority Bus Terminal or any of the NYC PATH stops, there still is the issue of walking to work in freezing temperatures because of a shutdown subway system. To some, this means walking 10-30 blocks with the irking knowledge of their other co-workers sitting at home with laptops on their coffee tables while working in their pajamas (or not working at all).
Still, the effect of a transit strike should not have much of an impact on the financial markets, which is where more than a few careers of Hoboken’s younger population can be found.
A large percentage of analysts, traders and sales people reside outside of Manhattan in New Jersey or upstate New York, so the strike isn’t as bad as, say, a New Jersey or New York state transit strike would be if that ever occurred.
“We’ll have everybody in. Honestly, suburban strikes would be far more injurious to us. We will be at full staff,” John McCarthy, director of foreign exchange trading at ING Capital Markets told Reuters. “Volume will be fractionally lighter.”
So while many New Yorkers will be plugging away from the comforters of their apartments, most of Hoboken’s gainfully employed woke up this morning and trudged though the ice and cold to go to back to the corporate salt mines.
Suddenly, that comparably priced apartment on 135th street and Amsterdam Ave. isn’t looking so bad.
NJ customer news and notes:
• NJ TRANSIT train service into and out of Penn Station New York may be minimally impacted due to congestion.
• Expect heavier than normal crowds, and allow yourself extra travel time as you enter and exit the station.
• The Long Island Rail Road entrance on 34th Street and 7th Avenue at Penn Station is closed to NJ TRANSIT customers. All other entrances are open.
• The Hilton passage way, which connects the subway and Penn Station, is closed. • To provide customers with additional travel flexibility, NJ TRANSIT ticket holders may use their ticket or pass on any NJ TRANSIT mode including bus, rail, and light rail.
Only cars with 4 or more passengers will be permitted through the major Hudson River crossings (GW Bridge, Lincoln and Holland Tunnels).
If you have any questions, call customer service office at 1-800-772-2222.
NJ Transit has plans in place to assist customers including deploying additional Customer Service Representatives at Newark Penn Station, Hoboken Terminal, Penn Station New York, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal