Trading in private wheels for city rails

[Trainspotter 0]

Trading in private wheels for city rails

BY BRENDAN BROSH

DAILY NEWS WRITER

April 7th 2008

 

McDermott for News

Dan Tubridy

 

Dan Tubridy, a Manhattan bar owner who lives in Rockaway Park, Queens, knows exactly what congestion pricing will cost him: an additional hour and six minutes.

 

If Mayor Bloomberg gets his way in Albany to charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan, the 31-year-old newlywed expects his commute to more than triple as he trades his Pontiac Aztek for the train.

 

What was a 35-to-40-minute drive into Manhattan will be replaced by nearly two hours on the subway — with three transfers.

 

"If it was convenient, I'd take the train every day," Tubridy said Friday during a dry run of what would become his daily subway trek to work on E. 53rd St.

 

Tubridy manages Metro 53, a bar in Manhattan's Turtle Bay. He also co-owns Libation on the lower East Side and Saloon in Yorkville.

 

"I don't understand how it took almost two hours to go 17 miles," Tubridy said after his congestion pricing test run. "If we drove, we could be in the Hamptons or Philly by now."