Neighborhoods

Getting to Grand Central & Midtown East

Grand Central, Bryant Park, Murray Hill and the East Side avenues — the Airport Express bus heartland.

Inside the Manhattan Congestion Relief Zone (below 60th St)

The shortlist

Ranked for this corner of the island, best first:

1. 1 Newark Airport Express Bus 45–75 min · $17–18
2. 2 NJ TRANSIT Rail (via AirTrain) 30–45 min · $17–18
3. 3 Private Black-Car Service 30–55 min · $130–220
4. 4 Airport Taxi 30–60 min · $85–110

Getting here, specifically

This is Newark Airport Express territory: the coach's Bryant Park stop at 42nd and Fifth and its Grand Central stop on 41st between Park and Lexington put you in the middle of the zone with no transfer. By rail you arrive at New York Penn on the far West Side and need a crosstown leg — the 7 train from Times Square, or the S shuttle from Times Square to Grand Central — to reach the East Side avenues. PATH lands even farther west at 33rd and Sixth, making the bus the cleaner one-seat ride for Murray Hill and Grand Central. A car takes the Lincoln Tunnel and grinds crosstown through Midtown, paying the congestion toll either way.

Midtown East sits below 60th Street, inside the Congestion Relief Zone, so every car-based crossing carries the Manhattan congestion charge on top of the tunnel toll — which tilts the math toward rail and, downtown, toward PATH. Open any crossing for its full timing, fare and step-by-step.

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