New York State operates three major international gateway airports. John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens handles over sixty million passengers annually and serves as the primary long-haul international entry point, with six active passenger terminals connected by the AirTrain light rail system that links to the subway at Jamaica Station and Howard Beach. Newark Liberty International Airport sits across the Hudson River in New Jersey but functions as a core New York metropolitan airport, processing approximately forty-six million passengers yearly through three terminals served by the AirTrain Newark connecting to Amtrak and New Jersey Transit rail at the airport station. LaGuardia Airport, also in Queens, reopened its completely rebuilt Terminal B in 2022 after a multi-year reconstruction and primarily serves domestic routes plus select flights to Canada and the Caribbean, handling roughly thirty-one million annual passengers. Stewart International Airport in Orange County, sixty miles north of Manhattan, operates as a secondary regional option with limited commercial service. Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Cheektowaga serves the western region with connections to major domestic hubs and Toronto. Rochester Greater Rochester International Airport, Syracuse Hancock International Airport, and Albany International Airport function as regional centers with primarily domestic networks and seasonal service to vacation destinations.
Ground transportation from JFK operates through multiple fixed-price and metered systems. The AirTrain costs eight dollars and twenty-five cents from any terminal to Jamaica Station for subway connections or to Howard Beach for the A train, with total subway fare to Manhattan adding an additional two dollars and seventy-five cents as of 2024. Yellow taxi service to Manhattan uses a flat rate of seventy dollars excluding tolls and gratuity, established in 2006 and adjusted periodically. App-based ride services operate on metered pricing that fluctuates with demand, typically ranging from sixty to one hundred twenty dollars to midtown Manhattan depending on traffic and surge multipliers. Shared shuttle vans were discontinued in 2020. The Long Island Rail Road operates direct service from Jamaica Station to Penn Station, Grand Central Madison, and Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal, with the journey taking approximately twenty minutes to midtown and costing ten dollars and twenty-five cents off-peak or thirteen dollars and fifty cents during peak hours when combined with AirTrain fare.
Newark Airport connects to Manhattan via several rail options. The AirTrain Newark costs eight dollars and fifty cents to reach Newark Liberty International Airport Station, where New Jersey Transit trains depart every fifteen to thirty minutes for New York Penn Station at a cost of fifteen dollars and twenty-five cents, creating a total rail journey of approximately forty minutes. Amtrak's Northeast Regional and Acela services also stop at the airport station but charge standard intercity fares beginning around thirty dollars. Express bus service operates from all terminals to major Manhattan locations including Port Authority Bus Terminal, Grand Central Terminal, and Bryant Park, with fares around eighteen to twenty dollars and journey times from forty-five minutes to ninety minutes depending on traffic conditions. Taxis from Newark to Manhattan operate on metered rates typically totaling seventy to ninety dollars including tolls.
LaGuardia Airport lacks direct rail connections. The Q70 Select Bus Service operates free transfers to the subway system at Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue and Woodside-61st Street stations on elevated express bus lanes, though the service does not accept cash and requires MetroCard or OMNY contactless payment. M60 Select Bus Service runs along 125th Street in Manhattan connecting to multiple subway lines at Broadway, Lexington Avenue, and other cross streets. Standard metered taxi service to midtown Manhattan typically costs thirty-five to fifty dollars depending on traffic. The airport's reconstruction included redesigned roadways and a new Terminal B with unified check-in and security screening serving multiple airlines under a single roof rather than separate airline terminals.
Interstate highway access into New York State converges through multiple bridge and tunnel crossings. The George Washington Bridge carries Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 across the Hudson River between Fort Lee, New Jersey and Washington Heights in Manhattan, with fourteen lanes split between an upper and lower deck that together accommodate approximately one hundred three million vehicles annually, making it the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge by total traffic volume. Cash tolls were eliminated in 2020 with all collection now via E-ZPass transponders at seventeen dollars during peak hours and fourteen dollars and seventy-five cents off-peak for passenger vehicles without New York or New Jersey E-ZPass discounts, charged only in the westbound direction. The Lincoln Tunnel carries New York Route 495 in three separate tubes totaling six lanes between Weehawken, New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan near the Port Authority Bus Terminal, processing approximately twenty-one million vehicles yearly with the same toll structure as the George Washington Bridge. The Holland Tunnel opened in 1927 as the first mechanically ventilated underwater vehicular tunnel and connects Jersey City to Lower Manhattan via Interstate 78, carrying approximately fifteen million vehicles annually through its two tubes.
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge links Staten Island to Brooklyn with a thirteen-thousand-foot main span that held the record as the world's longest suspension bridge span from its 1964 opening until 1981. The bridge carries Interstate 278 and charges seventeen dollars peak or fourteen dollars seventy-five cents off-peak eastbound only via cashless tolling. The Throgs Neck Bridge and Bronx-Whitestone Bridge both cross the East River between the Bronx and Queens, carrying Interstate 295 and Interstate 678 respectively with the same toll rates. The Triborough Bridge, officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008, connects Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx via three separate spans meeting at Randalls Island, with each crossing charged separately at ten dollars and seventeen cents for passenger cars with E-ZPass. The Queens-Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, now named the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, both charge the same rates as the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. The Tappan Zee Bridge was demolished after the 2017 opening of its replacement, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, which carries the New York State Thruway Interstate 87 and Interstate 287 across the Hudson River between Tarrytown and Nyack with cashless tolling at five dollars for passenger cars with New York E-ZPass.
Driving into Manhattan south of Sixtieth Street requires payment of congestion pricing charges scheduled to begin in 2024 after multiple delays, with passenger vehicles charged fifteen dollars during daytime hours for entry via bridges and tunnels below the boundary. Vehicles already paying Port Authority crossing tolls receive credits against the congestion charge. On-street parking in Manhattan operates via meters charging up to six dollars and seventy-five cents per hour in high-demand zones with enforcement typically from 8 AM to 10 PM on weekdays and varying weekend hours. Parking garages commonly charge fifty to seventy-five dollars for twelve hours in Midtown and can exceed one hundred dollars for event parking near major venues. Alternate side parking regulations require vehicles to move for street cleaning on designated days and times, with specific schedules varying by location and posted on street signs using codes that indicate the calendar pattern.
Public transit in the New York metropolitan region operates through multiple agencies under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority umbrella, with independent systems in New Jersey and Connecticut connecting to the network. The New York City Subway runs twenty-four hours daily across four hundred seventy-two stations on twenty-eight routes totaling eight hundred fifty route miles, though scheduled track work frequently suspends service on specific lines during nights and weekends with substitute bus bridges. A single ride costs two dollars and seventy-five cents regardless of distance, paid via MetroCard magnetic stripe or OMNY contactless payment accepted at all stations as of 2023. The seven-day unlimited MetroCard costs thirty-three dollars and the thirty-day unlimited costs one hundred twenty-seven dollars, both permitting unlimited subway and local bus rides. Express buses add a premium with single rides at seven dollars.
The subway operates on a trunk-and-branch structure with multiple services sharing tracks in Manhattan before divergiding to separate terminals in the outer boroughs. The Eighth Avenue Line carries the A and C trains locally and the E train express through midtown, with the A train running as the system's longest route from Inwood-207th Street to Far Rockaway and Lefferts Boulevard in Queens, covering thirty-one miles in approximately two hours end to end. The Lexington Avenue Line remains the system's busiest corridor with four through-routes: the 4, 5, and 6 trains run local or express depending on time of day, while the 6 operates a diamond-6 express variant during peak hours in the peak direction only. The Flushing Line 7 train operates as the sole service on its dedicated right-of-way from Flushing-Main Street to 34th Street-Hudson Yards, the latter opened in 2015 as the first new subway station in Manhattan since 1989.
Commuter rail serves suburban and exurban territory across the broader region. Metro-North Railroad operates three main lines from Grand Central Terminal: the Hudson Line runs north along the river's eastern bank to Poughkeepsie with ninety-one miles of track, the Harlem Line extends to Wassaic in Dutchess County at eighty-two miles, and the New Haven Line reaches New Haven, Connecticut at seventy-three miles with continuing service to New Haven provided by Shore Line East. The Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines operate to northern New Jersey via a transfer at Secaucus Junction. Metro-North carried sixty-two million riders in 2022 as the system recovered from pandemic lows. The Long Island Rail Road operates eleven branches from its main hub at Jamaica Station, with most services terminating at either Penn Station or the new Grand Central Madison terminal that opened in 2023 after decades of planning and construction. The railroad extends one hundred eighteen miles east to Montauk on Long Island's eastern tip, with this route operating as a popular summer weekend service.
New Jersey Transit operates rail lines radiating from New York Penn Station to destinations throughout northern and central New Jersey, with eleven commuter rail lines carrying approximately seventy-six million annual riders pre-pandemic. The Northeast Corridor Line provides the most frequent service with trains departing every fifteen to thirty minutes during peak periods, continuing south to Trenton where connections meet SEPTA service toward Philadelphia. The Morristown Line, Bergen County Line, and Pascack Valley Line serve bedroom communities west and north of Newark. PATH, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson system, operates twenty-four-hour rapid transit service through four routes connecting Manhattan to Jersey City, Hoboken, Harrison, and Newark, charging two dollars and seventy-five cents per ride regardless of origin or destination. Annual ridership reached eighty-two million in 2019.
The Staten Island Railway operates a single twenty-eight-mile line from St. George Terminal, where the Staten Island Ferry docks, to Tottenville at the island's southern tip. The railway carries approximately three million annual passengers and operates as part of the MTA subway fare system despite being geographically separated from the rest of the network. Service runs twenty-four hours with trains every fifteen to thirty minutes depending on time of day. The Staten Island Ferry itself operates between Whitehall Terminal in Lower Manhattan and St. George Terminal with no fare charge, maintaining continuous service every fifteen to thirty minutes around the clock and carrying approximately twenty-five thousand daily riders. Each ferry can accommodate three thousand eight hundred passengers and one hundred forty vehicles, though vehicle loading is restricted to specific boats and times.
Bus service within New York City operates via MTA Bus Company and the older New York City Transit bus operations, collectively running over three hundred routes across the five boroughs with approximately 1.5 million daily riders. Select Bus Service routes operate with bus rapid transit features including dedicated lanes, all-door boarding, and traffic signal priority, reducing journey times by fifteen to thirty percent on heavily traveled corridors. The M15 on First and Second Avenues, the Bx12 on Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway, and the B44 on Nostrand Avenue serve among the highest daily passenger volumes. Bus fares match subway pricing at two dollars and seventy-five cents with free transfers between buses and between bus and subway valid for two hours. Express buses operate on limited routes from outer borough residential areas to Manhattan business districts during peak hours only, charging seven dollars per trip.
Private bus carriers operate intercity routes from several terminals. The Port Authority Bus Terminal at Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street serves as the world's busiest bus terminal with approximately sixty-five million annual passenger movements pre-pandemic, offering service to destinations across New Jersey, upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and New England via carriers including Greyhound, Peter Pan, and regional operators. George Washington Bridge Bus Station in Washington Heights primarily serves New Jersey Transit routes to northern and western suburbs. The older East Side Airlines Terminal building was demolished, with most intercity bus operators relocating to curb pickup locations or smaller facilities.
Taxi and for-hire vehicle systems in New York City fall under multiple licensing categories. Yellow medallion taxis number thirteen thousand five hundred eighty-seven after the city stopped issuing new medallions in 1937, creating a limited supply that drove medallion values to over one million dollars in 2013 before app-based competition collapsed the market. Yellow taxis can pick up street hails anywhere in the city and charge metered fares starting at three dollars plus fifty cents per fifth of a mile or per minute of wait time, with a fifty-cent surcharge added during evening hours and a dollar surcharge during weekday rush hours. Green Boro Taxis, introduced in 2013, can pick up street hails anywhere except Manhattan below West 110th Street and East 96th Street, with eighteen thousand three hundred permits issued. Both yellow and green taxis add a thirty-cent improvement surcharge and a two-dollar fifty-cent congestion surcharge for trips beginning, ending, or passing through Manhattan south of Ninety-sixth Street.
App-based ride services Uber and Lyft entered New York in 2011 and 2014 respectively, with the city capping new for-hire vehicle licenses in 2018 after the fleet expanded to approximately one hundred thirty thousand active vehicles from a previous stable level around sixty-three thousand yellow medallion and black car vehicles combined. The 2018 regulations also established minimum pay standards for drivers calculated per trip and per hour of active time, initially set at seventeen dollars and twenty-two cents per hour after expenses before later adjustments. In 2023, the Taxi and Limousine Commission required all app-based rides in Manhattan below Ninety-sixth Street to add a one-dollar fifty-cent surcharge matching the congestion fee applied to yellow and green taxis, with seventy-five cents applied to trips in outer boroughs.
Bicycle infrastructure in New York City expanded significantly after 2007 when the city began installing protected bike lanes separated from vehicle traffic by physical barriers. The network grew from approximately three hundred lane-miles in 2006 to over one thousand four hundred lane-miles by 2022, including protected lanes, painted conventional lanes, and shared greenway paths. The Hudson River Greenway runs eleven miles along Manhattan's west side from Battery Park to Dyckman Street, forming the busiest cycling route in the United States with daily counts exceeding seven thousand riders at 52nd Street. The East River waterfront greenway segments connect through gaps with portions complete from the Battery to East 125th Street. Major protected routes include the two-way path on Eighth and Ninth Avenues through Midtown, the Kent Avenue route in Brooklyn along the East River, and the Queens Boulevard corridor.
Citi Bike launched in 2013 as the city's bike share system with six thousand bicycles at three hundred thirty stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, expanding by 2024 to approximately twenty-five thousand bikes including electric-assist models at more than two thousand stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Standard forty-five-minute rides cost three dollars and ninety-nine cents for non-members, while annual memberships run one hundred eighty-five dollars with unlimited forty-five-minute classic bike rides included and per-minute charges for electric bikes. The system recorded over thirty-one million trips in 2022. Docked stations concentrate in higher-density areas, with sparser coverage in outer neighborhoods and none in Staten Island. State law permits electric bicycles in three classes: Class 1 with pedal assist to twenty miles per hour, Class 2 with throttle control to twenty miles per hour, and Class 3 with pedal assist to twenty-eight miles per hour, though Class 3 bikes are prohibited on greenways and most protected paths.
Ferry service expanded significantly in 2017 with NYC Ferry launching routes operated by Hornblower under contract to the city's Economic Development Corporation. Six routes connect waterfront neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, with a seventh seasonal route to the Rockaways operating Memorial Day through Labor Day. Single rides cost four dollars regardless of distance, matching the subway fare structure at launch though at a higher price point than the current two-seventy-five subway fare. The East River route operates the highest frequency with boats every fifteen to thirty minutes during peak hours connecting Wall Street to East Thirty-fourth Street, Long Island City, Roosevelt Island, and Astoria. The system carried approximately six million annual riders pre-pandemic across a fleet of twenty vessels with capacations ranging from one hundred forty-nine to three hundred fifty passengers depending on vessel class.
The older New York Water Taxi service ceased independent operations and merged into NYC Ferry, though separate private operators continue tourist and commuter services. Seastreak operates commuter ferries from New Jersey terminals in Highlands, Atlantic Highlands, and Belford to Wall Street and East Thirty-fifth Street with forty-minute crossing times and fares around forty-five dollars round trip. NY Waterway runs extensive commuter routes from fourteen terminals in New Jersey to multiple Manhattan landings, with approximately thirty-two thousand daily riders and service every five to fifteen minutes during peak hours on major routes.