How Long Is the Train Journey from NYC to the Hamptons?

The train from New York City to the Hamptons takes about 3 hours — and the exact time depends on which Hamptons town you mean. On the Long Island Rail Road’s Montauk Branch, a regular train from Penn Station to Southampton takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes, to East Hampton about 3 hours, and to Montauk, the last stop, about 3 hours and 17 minutes. The seasonal Cannonball express is faster: about 2 hours and 41 minutes from Penn Station to Montauk, and only 94 minutes to Westhampton, because it runs nonstop from Penn Station to Westhampton and skips every station in between. Most trains leave from Penn Station at Moynihan Train Hall or from Grand Central Madison, and most require a change at Jamaica outside the summer direct service — so check the timetable for your date before you count on a one-seat ride.

The short answer: about 3 hours, depending on the town

“The Hamptons” is not one place — it is a string of towns along 40 miles of Long Island’s South Fork, and the train time grows with every stop east. The railway runs the Montauk Branch from Manhattan through Jamaica and then east past Westhampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Amagansett to Montauk, 118 miles from Penn Station. The practical times, station to station, are the ones to plan around — and the transfer at Jamaica is what makes the difference between the timetable and the trip.

• Penn Station to Westhampton — about 1 hour and 34 minutes on the Cannonball express, longer on a local
• Penn Station to Southampton — about 2 hours and 40 minutes
• Penn Station to East Hampton — about 3 hours
• Penn Station to Montauk — about 3 hours and 17 minutes on a regular train, about 2 hours and 41 minutes on the Cannonball
• Grand Central Madison departures add the same times from the east side of Manhattan

Those times are the scheduled times, not the door-to-door times. Add the subway or the walk to Penn Station or Grand Central Madison, the wait at Jamaica if your train changes there, and the taxi or the walk from the Hamptons station to where you are staying — the stations are close to the villages, but “close” in the Hamptons still means a short cab ride with luggage. The honest door-to-door number for a Montauk trip is 3 hours and 30 minutes to 4 hours from most of Manhattan.

The Cannonball: the fast train

The Cannonball is the LIRR’s seasonal named express between Penn Station and Montauk, and it is the only train on the route that feels fast. It runs eastbound on summer Fridays (and Thursdays in the 2026 season) and westbound on summer Sundays, with westbound service running through Columbus Day weekend, and it takes slightly less than 3 hours to travel the 118-mile route. The eastbound train runs nonstop between Penn Station and Westhampton — 94 minutes for that leg — then stops at Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Montauk. The average journey time is 2 hours and 41 minutes eastbound and 2 hours and 51 minutes westbound. It uses double-decker C3 coaches with dual-mode locomotives, and in the 2026 season the Friday departure left Penn Station at 4:07 p.m. and reached Montauk by about 7 p.m. — against a Friday-afternoon drive on the Long Island Expressway that can take 5 hours.

The Cannonball is weekly and seasonal, so it is not a train you can count on for a Tuesday in February. For the rest of the year, the direct service is thinner: most trains require at least one transfer at Jamaica, which lengthens a trip that takes roughly 3 hours and 10 minutes even without a transfer. In August 2026 the MTA announced year-round direct trips from Penn Station to Montauk, adding a weekday 5:13 p.m. train that runs directly to Montauk all year — the first year-round one-seat ride on the branch — but the rest of the off-season timetable still runs through Jamaica. Check the LIRR timetable for your exact date: the summer timetable and the winter timetable are different services, not the same trains running less often.

What it costs

The fare depends on the zone and on peak versus off-peak, and the Hamptons are the far end of the line. A one-way ticket from Penn Station to Montauk (Zone 1 to Zone 14) is about $26.50 off-peak and about $36.25 at peak in 2026, and all weekends and holidays are off-peak, so a Saturday trip to the beach is the cheaper fare. Peak hours are weekday trains arriving at Penn Station between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., or departing Penn Station between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. — which is exactly when the Friday Cannonball leaves, so the express costs the peak fare. The Cannonball also sells reserved seats in its dining and bar cars for an extra charge on top of the ticket. Buy the ticket before you board: the onboard fare is higher, and the conductors check. And check the fare on the MTA’s fare calculator for your date, because the numbers move with the fare changes and this page’s figures are dated to this build.

Train versus driving versus a car service

The train wins on Friday afternoons and loses on flexibility — that is the whole comparison. Driving from Manhattan to Montauk takes about 3 hours off-peak on the Long Island Expressway, and 5 hours on a summer Friday afternoon, with tolls and gas on top. The Hampton Jitney coach from Manhattan takes 3 to 3.5 hours and drops closer to the villages than the train does, but it sits in the same traffic as the cars. The train runs on rails, so traffic cannot add two hours the way it can on the LIE — but the train runs on a timetable, so a missed connection at Jamaica costs you the next train, and the last trains east are early enough that a late dinner in the city means a car, not a train.

A pre-booked car is the door-to-door option, and the honest way to price it is by the hour or by the trip, not by the mile. JetBlack quotes Hamptons trips per trip — book through the booking form or by calling +1-646-214-4828, with the pickup, the destination town, and the luggage in the notes — and the price is fixed once given, with no surge. The trade-off is plain: the car costs more than the train, but it leaves when you leave, stops where you stop, and carries the luggage from your door to the house in the Hamptons without a change at Jamaica. For scale, the same fixed-versus-metered arithmetic applies on the airport runs: the economy sedan from JFK to Manhattan is a $65 flat with JetBlack, while a yellow taxi on the same route runs on the TLC’s $70 flat fare, with the meter reading “Rate #2 – JFK Airport”, and surcharges, tolls and tip push the real taxi total toward $90 to $115. The transfers from JFK Airport to Manhattan guide and the JFK to Manhattan budget options page lay out those numbers. If the Hamptons trip starts at the airport, the LaGuardia Airport transfer page and the airport shuttle from JFK to EWR guide cover the airport legs, and the closest of New York’s three major airports to Manhattan is LaGuardia — while how to get to LGA Airport using public transportation covers the public route there. Cancellation is free before your booking is confirmed; after confirmation it is $31 in total — $25 plus $5 in fees plus a $1 technology fee — and a 20% tip is suggested, not included.

So the short version: the train from NYC to the Hamptons takes about 3 hours to Montauk on a regular train, about 2 hours and 41 minutes on the summer Cannonball express, and about 2 hours and 40 minutes to Southampton. Budget a transfer at Jamaica outside the direct service, check the timetable for your date, and remember the door-to-door trip is longer than the station-to-station time.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Cannonball (LIRR train) (118.0 miles; average journey time 2 hours 41 minutes eastbound, 2 hours 51 minutes westbound; 94 minutes Penn Station to Westhampton; seasonal Friday eastbound, Sunday westbound), accessed 2026-11-07
• MTA / LIRR — Montauk Branch timetable and fare calculator (Zone 1 to Zone 14 about $26.50 off-peak, $36.25 peak in 2026; year-round weekday 5:13 p.m. direct train to Montauk announced 26 August 2026), via 6sqft and InfoForNYC, accessed 2026-11-07
• Rome2Rio — New York Penn Station to Montauk (3h 17m, 117 miles), accessed 2026-11-07
• NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission — Taxi Fare (Rate #2 JFK Airport $70 flat), accessed 2026-11-07
• JetBlack Transportation — owner-confirmed service facts (booking channels, JFK–Manhattan economy sedan $65 flat, cancellation $31 total, no surge, 20% tip suggested), confirmed 2026-10-26