Connecticut to New York: Executive Sedans, Vans and Coaches

The Fairfield County finance belt

Lower Fairfield County, from Greenwich through Stamford to Westport, holds one of the densest concentrations of investment firms in the country, alongside the corporate headquarters towers of downtown Stamford and the office corridor along the Merritt 7 in Norwalk. It is also some of the most affluent residential country in the Northeast, with estates in backcountry Greenwich, New Canaan and Ridgefield.

The trips that follow from that are executive ones. A portfolio manager heading to a Midtown meeting, an investor flying into LaGuardia for a day at a Greenwich firm, a board convening in Stamford from three airports: each needs a clean vehicle, a chauffeur who is early rather than on time, and nobody else knowing where the car went.

The long runs to the airports and the city

Nothing major is close. From Stamford, LaGuardia is the nearest of the four big airports at about 45 to 75 minutes; JFK is 60 to 100 minutes, Teterboro 55 to 90 minutes over the George Washington Bridge, and Newark, the longest, 75 to 120 minutes. Midtown Manhattan is typically 60 to 95 minutes. Westchester County Airport, just over the state line, is 20 to 35 minutes for regional and private flights.

On runs this long, the route choice is the job. I-95 is the direct line along the shore and the Merritt Parkway runs parallel inland; which one is moving decides whether a flight is comfortable or tight, and rush hour on either can add half an hour. We set pickups with real margin, track arriving flights so a delay moves the chauffeur, and send the chauffeur's details ahead of every airport run.

Investor days, board meetings and company groups

Groups in Connecticut are mostly business groups. A deal team travels to Manhattan in the 14-seat conference-table Sprinter so the meeting can run on the way; a small group of partners takes the Jet Sprinter, seating 7; and a firm hosting an investor day collects its guests from LaGuardia, JFK and Stamford station in 14-passenger Sprinters and brings them back to the airports at the end.

Larger company events use mini buses seating 23, 29, 32 and 38, a 40-passenger charter bus or a 55-passenger motor coach, for an all-hands offsite, a conference shuttle between Stamford hotels, or a team outing into the city, with several vehicles on one booking when the group is bigger than one coach.

Those vehicles take a different road. The Merritt Parkway is closed to buses and commercial vehicles and its old stone overpasses are too low for them, so a mini bus or coach travels I-95 and I-287 instead, and its loading point at an office campus or an estate is agreed before the day.

Across the state line

Heading south, I-95 becomes the New England Thruway in New York and the Merritt becomes the Hutchinson River Parkway; I-287 branches west through Westchester toward the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge and New Jersey. Stamford station, served by Metro-North and Amtrak, is where many visitors arrive, and we meet trains there as readily as flights.

A Connecticut pickup is well outside Manhattan's congestion relief zone. The charge only becomes relevant for a trip whose drop-off is inside the zone in Manhattan, and we let you know what applies when that trip is booked.