Yeah - plus Hartford traffic is notoriously terrible. I’d advise against more than a 45m daily commute to Hartford given the likelihood of accidents and serious traffic jams that can add a ton of time to the commute. Not to mention when there’s the slightest bit of snow falling!

The NYC commute is certainly no cake walk, but Metro North is pretty reliable and consistent, and time on the train can be used to catch up on work or just relax. That’ll help OP because unfortunately, on their travel days, they wouldn’t have much other free time no matter how you slice it - though it would be somewhat balanced out with 2 wfh days.

I say this assuming both jobs are roughly equivalent in terms of either merit, salary, growth potential in the respective field, etc.

Relatedly, the Fairfield Metro (not ffld downtown) station is great for commuters. Enormous parking lot and it’s easy and quick to navigate/walk into the station from the lot… that may sound granular but in the mornings sometimes these little things make a difference! It’s much much easier than leaving from more crowded stations with packed parking like New Haven, and parking fees are low. If you don’t move to a town with a station right in town, this is still an easy station to park at and commute out of. It’s ~1h20m to GCT, no transfers.