By Jacqueline Hlavenka
There’s something familiar that I would see everyday at Gate 322 inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Around 5:30 p.m., it was like the movie “Escape from New York” came to life. During winter break, I had the pleasure of interning at the Village Voice in Manhattan for college credit. Internships are required for print journalism majors to graduate, and I figured I would get a head start by working over the break, instead of ringing up body splash and hand sanitizers back at the mall in New Jersey. However, for the days of unpaid work, I ended up shelling out over $3,000 just to get my foot in the door.
At 5 p.m., I’d hop on the R train two blocks away from my office at Cooper Square. Once I hit 42nd Street, I would go down about five staircases until I made it to the Eighth Avenue subway tunnel, which connects 42nd and Seventh Avenue to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. When I was 16 years old, I called this “The Tunnel of Doom,” with good reason. All major subway transfers happen here (including the A, C, E, 1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, W, and let’s not forget the Times Square Shuttle, the S train) and people pile out of the subway cars like cattle. Each herd, whether you’re coming from Flushing, Queens or Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, walks uphill through the tunnel. It’s hot. It’s narrow. The pages of the morning edition of amNewYork cover the tiles like carpet. Preachers pander their religions, and nobody seems to care.
Now I need New Jersey Transit on the third floor. Long lines of commuters are lined up in front of each gate, as the lines gradually snake around the building. There are the people who frantically purchase tickets from the machine and run to their gate, hoping to get a seat. There are those extremely ‘busy’ people who somehow feel the need to run up the escalator. (I usually stand to the right on the stairs, to avoid getting clobbered.) Sometimes the lines are so long that people get confused what line they are standing in to begin with.
“Does this go to Freehold Mall?” an older woman with sandy-blonde hair asked another man in line.
“Nah. This is the Gordon’s Corner Express. You want the 321.”
If you want Gordon’s Corner after 8 p.m., then it’s the 321. Before that, the express is 322. Sometimes it’s 323. The bus to the mall is the 321: express at rush hour, local through the night.
Everyone seems to know what’s going on even though it’s utter chaos. You start to see the same people everyday, going to the same places. Once I finally get on the bus, my trip back to my hometown of Manalapan, N.J., takes about one hour from New York, sometimes with a half-hour more in traffic.
Additionally, my commute costs $26 per day, bus and subway fares included. At the Voice, I made about $251 doing freelance photography for the Web site, but the money barely cancelled out my transportation expenses.
Plus, suburban commuters get hit with a double-whammy. First, you need a parking permit to park in the town commuter lots. Next, you need to fill-out a form through the Township to become eligible for the parking pass, and then you are put on a waiting list.
Once you get the pass, it is $100 a year to park at Franklin Lane, Symmes Drive or Towne Pointe. In addition, the town has more people than parking spaces-and it can take up to a year to get off the waiting list.
Monthly interstate passes are $259 from my zone, and although a monthly 25 percent discount is offered for college students, Hofstra University does not partner with New Jersey Transit, whereas New York University (NYU) and CUNY John Jay, do.
And it doesn’t stop here. Ridership on NJ Transit trains and buses increased 3.9 percent over last year, averaging 890,000 passenger trips, according to a statement from the company.
“These ridership figures reaffirm the importance of public transportation for our residents and for the state and regional economies,” said Governor Jon S. Corzine, in a statement. “They also underscore the need to continue investing in the system through such projects as Access to the Region’s Core to meet future transportation demands.”
Nevertheless, this is the life of the people who span two very different spheres: the home in suburbia and the job in the city. Talk of constructing a NJ Transit rail-line in my town was turned down because people didn’t want the noise. Yet, everyone complains about the bus.
As for me? When I graduate, let’s hope I can move out to Queens.
Jacqueline Hlavenka is a junior print journalism major. You may e-mail her at [email protected].
Commuters from the Tri-State area enter the crowded 8th Avenue subway tunnel in Manhattan.