When plans often go awry, stay cool

05-22-2005

As any traveler knows, any trip can be an adventure, and even a few minutes' delay can make a dramatic difference.

Several weeks ago, I had to attend a Monday afternoon meeting in New York City. With a choice of three airports, I decided to take a morning flight into Newark, in part because I wanted to check out the new rail connection from the airport to Penn Station.

		For New Jersey Transit train fares and schedules, call 1-800-626-7433 or visit www.njtransit.com.

During rush hour, which on the New Jersey Turnpike can be almost any time of day, getting into midtown Manhattan by road can be problematic from any of the area's three airports. Opened last year, the mile-long AirTrain link between Newark Liberty Airport and the main Amtrak line seemed as if it might be to a good alternative to an expensive cab or long bus ride into the Port Authority Terminal on 41st Street.

And it was.

The mono-rail AirTrain tram cars loop round the airport on an elevated track, making stops at Newark's three terminals and four parking structures before crossing over Route 1 to the new rail station on the main rail corridor. The free shuttles arrive and depart every three minutes from 5 a.m. to midnight and approximately every 15 minutes thereafter.

As I discovered, after finding the AirTrain station in Terminal Three where my flight landed, it was a 10-minute ride to the rail junction.

With 72 trains operating along that corridor each weekday, one arrives every 10 to 20 minutes for the half-hour trip into Penn Station. The one-way adult fare is $11.55, which can be purchased at the ticket kiosk or vending machine at the station. Once you arrive at Penn Station, you can walk to your final destination if it's close enough, or catch a cab, bus or, as I did, the subway.

As far as timing, I walked off the plane at 10:35 a.m. with carry-on luggage in hand. At 11:50 a.m. I was registering at my hotel near Grand Central Station. Total transfer time: one hour and 15 minutes. Total cost: $13.55. Not too bad for a Monday morning, I thought.

My return trip the next afternoon, however, was a different story.

My flight was scheduled to leave Newark at 5:45 p.m., so I left the hotel about 3.

I considered catching a cab to Penn Station, but seeing the bumper-to-bumper traffic on 42nd Street, decided to take the subway. Walking down an entrance to the platform for the crosstown shuttle, I discovered that two Transit Authority workers were resetting the only ticket machine. Told the delay would only be a minute, I decided to wait. Of course, instead of one minute, they took four -- not a lot of time, but it made a difference.

I maneuvered through the subway's tunnels and transfers, and walked into Penn Station at 3:35, just as a 3:38 train was being announced for final boarding. Looking up at the huge departure board, I saw the next train was in 14 minutes, so there was no need to rush. I bought a ticket, sauntered down to the platform and settled into a comfortable seat on the train. Twenty-three minutes later, I was at the AirTrain station, with an hour and 20 minutes to make my plane.

I fumbled around trying to find my train ticket, so I walked down to the shuttle platform just as one tram was leaving. No matter, another one was pulling in. When its doors slid open, I stepped into the car, along with nine other passengers. The doors closed, and then ... nothing.

A minute or two went by, and then the tram's intercom announced something like, "Departure of this car has been delayed. We will be under way shortly. Please stand by."

That message repeated itself every three minutes for the next hour. As we were to discover, a mishap elsewhere on the shuttle system closed everything down, and it took the operators far too long to realize they had to send a bus to pick up rail passengers. As we watched the time tick by, my fellow passengers, at first cool and collected, began to melt down. I knew if I missed my plane there was another flight at 7:30, but many of them were catching flights to Europe and the West Coast and faced more inconvenient prospects.

Standing there on that hot-air-less tram car, I had time to muse on the ironies of the situation. Had I not been delayed those few minutes at the subway, I might have caught the 3:38 train and breezed into the airport on the shuttle before the mishap occurred. If I hadn't spent that extra minute fumbling to find my ticket to exit the train, I might have caught the previous shuttle. If I hadn't ...

I stopped that train of thought before I got any further. One reality of travel is that the best-planned connections often go awry. No matter how far in advance you made your reservations, no matter how much you paid for your ticket, your transit may be stymied through no fault of your own. When that happens, the best strategy is to take a deep breath and let the situation sort itself out. Better a lesson learned than a temper lost.

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