From: jis@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (jishnu.mukerji)
Subject: Re: Transfers from JFK
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 19:35:09 GMT

In article <EJH.92Sep15114708@khonshu.colorado.edu> ejh@colorado.edu (Edward J. Hartnett) writes:
>In article <1992Sep14.235918.29160@fid.morgan.com> sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart) writes:
>
>   From: sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart)
>
>   In article <1992Sep14.232933.21710@udel.edu>
>   wheeler@mercury.cis.udel.edu (Aaron Wheeler) writes:
>
>   >Now, can anyone provide recommendations on getting from Kennedy to
>   >Midtown?
>   >
>   >I have looked at two options.  The Carey express coach runs quite
>   >frequently and looks like a good bet.  The JFK Express train is
>   >another possibility.
>
>   Not any more.  The JFK Express stopped running a while ago :-(.
>
>
>Bzzzzzzz! Sorry wrong answer. But please take our play at home
>version...
>
>You take a free bus from just outside where you get your luggage to
>the JFK express. It's about a 10 minute bus ride. The bus is marked
>with a big blue circle with a plane inside, and has JFK EXPRESS
>written all over it. It comes by every 20 minutes, .....  The
>price, last time I took it was $6.50 plus $1 to get into the subway in
>the first place. (i.e. if you're taking it back to the airport you pay
>a buck at the appropriate subway stop to get to the platform, then
>$6.50 on the train. I last took it about 3 years ago, so the price has
>probably gone up.

Sad to say, but if you arrive at JFK today and start waiting for a bus
"marked with a big blues circle with a plane inside", you can wait
until the cows come home, and no such bus will come by. JFK Express
was axed more than a year back. The least expensive transportation
involving a subway ride from JFK to Manhattan is now by the slow and
trundling "A" train. Yes you do get a free shuttle bus from the
terminals to Howard beach/JFK Station, but this is the shuttle to the
Long Term Parking Lot. The ride on the "A" train costs the same as any
other subway ride in New York.

Other alternatives involving a train ride are:

(i) Bus Q10 to Lefferts Boulevard and then "A" Train to Manhattan.
	This is a different A train from the one that you get at
	Howard Beach. (Costs two subway tokens)

(ii) Bus Q10 to Union Turnpike/Kew Gardens and then E or F train to
	Manhattan. You can also get an LIRR train from LIRR Kew
	Gardens station, but you have to remember to get off the bus
	two stops before its final stop at Union Turnpike. Of course
	LIRR is considerably more expensive than the Subway, by a
	factor of 2.
	
(iii) Carey to LIRR Jamaica Station and then either LIRR to Penn
	Station (more expensive but faster) or J or E from Sutphin Blvd. to
	Manhattan. This alternative is very convenient for going
	towards Long Island, or if you plan to travel onwards by train
	from Penn Station NY.

(iv) Q5? (I am not sure of this route number) to 169th St Jamaica and
	then F train to Manhattan.

Unfortunately, none of those alternatives have a definite time or
convenience advantage over direct bus from JFK to Manhattan, although
most of them are considerably cheaper.

Jishnu Mukerji
jis@usl.com
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air