Cab and car service on Staten Island

Staten Island is the borough with almost no taxis in it. Around 495,000 people, 58 square miles, a single railway line down the eastern edge, and a yellow cab fleet that has no reason to come here.

That is the market our cab service on Staten Island exists to serve: real coverage across the whole island, 24 hours a day, at a price fixed before you travel.

Where we pick up

North Shore — St. George around the ferry terminal, Borough Hall and the courthouse; New Brighton; Stapleton along Bay Street; Clifton; Tompkinsville; Port Richmond along Richmond Avenue; West Brighton.

East Shore — Grasmere, Old Town, Dongan Hills, Grant City, New Dorp along New Dorp Lane, Oakwood, Midland Beach and South Beach.

Mid-Island — New Springville around the Staten Island Mall; Bulls Head; Willowbrook; Todt Hill; Emerson Hill; Egbertville; Richmondtown.

South Shore — Great Kills along Hylan Boulevard, Eltingville, Annadale, Huguenot, Prince's Bay, Richmond Valley and Tottenville at the island's southern tip.

West Shore — Bloomfield, Chelsea, Travis, Graniteville and Mariners Harbor.

Tottenville to St. George is about 14 miles. On an island this size, "Staten Island" as a pickup location is not enough — give us the street.

Connecting from transit

The Staten Island Ferry is the borough's front door. Free, 24 hours a day, about 25 minutes to Whitehall Terminal in Lower Manhattan, every 15 to 30 minutes depending on the hour. Practically everyone commuting to Manhattan uses it, and almost nobody lives within walking distance of St. George. That last-mile gap is the single biggest source of our work here.

The Staten Island Railway runs one line from St. George to Tottenville, 21 stations, following the east shore. It connects to the ferry and to nothing else — no transfer to the subway anywhere. Fine if you live near a station, useless if you do not.

Express buses. The X1 through X31 run into Manhattan, and the S53, S79 and S93 cross the Verrazzano into Brooklyn. The S79 Select Bus down Hylan Boulevard is the main island-length route.

We meet ferries, trains and buses. For a ferry connection, tell us which sailing you need and we will build in time for the walk to the gate.

Trips we run most

Getting to the airports

Newark is the island's practical airport and it is not close. From most Staten Island addresses EWR is roughly half the journey time of JFK and a third less than LaGuardia, because the Goethals Bridge drops you almost straight onto the Turnpike with no New York City traffic in between.

If you are booking a flight and have a choice of airport, that difference is worth real money and an hour of your morning.

Traffic, bridges and tolls

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is tolled westbound only — you pay coming from Brooklyn onto the island, and nothing going east into Brooklyn. This one-way structure changes the arithmetic on round trips and we account for it in the quote rather than charging both directions.

The Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing connect to New Jersey and are tolled westbound only as well. The Bayonne Bridge is the third crossing, useful for Bayonne and Jersey City.

The Staten Island Expressway carries almost all cross-island traffic between the Verrazzano and the Goethals. It is the only realistic east-west route and it congests badly at peak in both directions. Hylan Boulevard and Richmond Avenue are the local alternatives — slower, with a lot of lights, but sometimes the better bet.

Ferry timing. Boats leave on a fixed schedule and do not wait. We build the walk from the drop-off to the gate into the pickup time, and for a peak-hour sailing we allow extra, because the St. George approach itself queues.

Snow. Staten Island's hills — Todt Hill is the highest point on the eastern seaboard south of Maine — make winter genuinely different here. Grymes Hill, Emerson Hill and Todt Hill can become difficult before anywhere else in the city. In bad weather book earlier and expect a slower run.

Venues, hospitals and destinations

Hospitals — Staten Island University Hospital (North and South campuses), Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, and the Sea View campus.

Education — the College of Staten Island in Willowbrook, Wagner College on Grymes Hill, and St. John's Staten Island campus.

Places people actually go — the Staten Island Mall in New Springville, Empire Outlets by the ferry terminal, the Staten Island Zoo, Historic Richmond Town, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Great Kills Park, South Beach boardwalk, and the SIUH campuses.

Civic — the Richmond County courthouse and Borough Hall, both at St. George, both generating steady weekday bookings from across the island.

Booking a Staten Island pickup

Call (888) 652-7136 or use the form. Street address, please — the island is 14 miles long and neighbourhood names alone can be forty minutes apart.

For a ferry connection, give us the sailing time rather than the pickup time and we will work it backwards. For a flight from Newark, add the flight number.