Leora Lanz, a professor at Boston University who lives on Long Island, has been super-commuting between her home and Boston for the past 10 years. She prefers this weekly roundtrip on the Amtrak train over the daily grind of commuting into New York City. Lanz typically takes a Long Island Rail Road train to Penn Station on Monday mornings and then boards an Amtrak Acela for a four-hour ride to Boston. The cost for a roundtrip ticket is usually between $150 and $200, as she books in advance.
While Lanz used to commute daily into New York City for her job in the hospitality industry, she found that the lengthy train rides to Boston have actually improved her quality of life. She is more productive on the train, using the time to grade papers, handle emails, and prepare for her classes at Boston University. Lanz also values the downtime she gets on the train, whether it’s watching movies, reading books, or enjoying the scenery along the Connecticut coastline. Her only complaint is the lack of reliable Wi-Fi on the trains.
When Lanz first started this super-commuting arrangement, her children were 17, 15, and 10 years old. Although the position was initially meant to last a semester, the family figured out a way to make it work for a much longer period. Lanz and her husband would prepare a week’s worth of school lunches and snacks for the kids before she left for Boston each week. Her children had to become more self-sufficient, and technology like Skype, Zoom, and FaceTime helped them stay connected.
Lanz credits her family and friends for helping her achieve a job that she loves and making the super-commuting arrangement successful. While she is on sabbatical this semester, she is preparing to return to work in the fall and acknowledges that the costs of traveling and housing can add up. Inspired by an old professor from Cornell University, who was also a super-commuter, Lanz took the Boston University job with the mindset that if he could commute between Florida and upstate New York, she could handle the Long Island to Boston route.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lanz would fly back into JFK International Airport when returning from Boston. Initially, she rented Airbnbs for her stays in Boston, but now she has a friend in the hospitality field who helps her with housing in the city. Lanz enjoys having a profession that is her own and appreciates the separation during the week, as she is happy to reunite with her children when she returns home. With her children now grown and on their own, she finds the super-commuting arrangement easier to manage.
