Rental counters at Newark Liberty are not in an arrivals hall. They sit inside a garage: the consolidated Rental Car Center occupies Levels 1 through 3 of the Parking A garage at Terminal A, and which level a company keeps has nothing to do with its price and everything to do with who owns it.
Newark Liberty publishes ten rental companies in that building, spread over three levels, and reaches them with an AirTrain that is free for this trip and runs every 3 to 5 minutes. A passenger landing at Terminal A walks; a passenger landing at Terminal B or C rides the train first. Both routes are published, and so are two different accounts of how long the last stretch takes.
Ten companies stacked on three levels
The airport lists ten rental companies with a phone number and a level for each, checked in September 2026. Read the levels alongside the numbers and the arrangement stops looking alphabetical: the brands that share a floor tend to share a switchboard as well, which is a fact about ownership rather than about geography.
| Level | Companies | Published numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, Sixt | Dollar and Thrifty both print +1 (973) 824-2003 |
| Level 2 | Enterprise, National, Alamo | +1 (844) 727-2982, 2983 and 2984, three consecutive numbers |
| Level 3 | Avis, Budget, Payless | +1 (973) 961-4300, +1 (973) 961-2990, +1 (973) 242-2124 |
The middle floor is the clearest case. Enterprise, National and Alamo are published with three consecutive telephone numbers, which is what a single call center looks like from the outside. Level 1 does the same thing more bluntly: Dollar and Thrifty print the identical number, and Hertz sits on the same floor.
Comparison shopping is where that matters. Two quotes from two brands on the same level are likely to be answered by the same operation from the same counter row, so the meaningful comparison is usually across levels rather than along one. It also explains why a car booked with one brand is sometimes handed over at a neighbouring desk.
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Where you land decides what renting costs in minutes
Instructions split by terminal. For Terminal A the wording is: “Follow signs to the Rental Car Center. The Rental Car Center is walking distance from Terminal A, no need to take a shuttle or AirTrain.” For the other two: “Take the AirTrain to the Terminal A AirTrain station and follow signs to the Rental Car Center.”
So a Terminal B or C arrival adds an AirTrain leg that Newark Liberty times at 3 to 5 minutes between trains during the day and 15 minutes between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., when the service runs as a shuttle between Terminals B and C only. Renting at midnight is a slower errand than renting at noon, and nothing on the rental page says so.
That leg is free, which the airport states on a different page again: the AirTrain carries no fare “for travel between terminals, parking lots, hotel shuttle areas (P3 Station), and rental car facilities”, and the $8.75 charge applies only to passengers connecting to NJ Transit or Amtrak without a rail ticket. A renter never pays it, and a renter reading only the rental page never learns that.
There is a third way in that gets less attention. A free bus runs between Terminal A and the Parking A garage, which the airport notes “is also the rental car center”, arriving approximately every 5 minutes with a live tracker. For anyone with heavy luggage that bus is the difference between a corridor walk and a ride, and it is published on the AirTrain page rather than the rental one.
Two airport pages, two versions of the same walk
One page calls the last stretch a covered corridor and gives no duration. The AirTrain page is blunter about the same geography: “The AirTrain does not connect directly to Terminal A. It is a 15 minute walk on a covered pathway or a 5 minute shuttle ride.”
Both were live in September 2026, and they are describing the same building from different desks. The honest reading is that the walk from the Terminal A AirTrain station is the 15-minute one the airport prices elsewhere, and that “walking distance” on the rental page means walking distance from the terminal building, not from the train.
What neither page carries is an opening hour. No counter times appear for any of the ten companies, so a 2 am arrival at Terminal B has a published train, every 15 minutes at that hour, and an unpublished desk at the end of it. The AirTrain leg is at least ADA throughout, with two designated wheelchair spaces per train.
Plan with the larger number. A traveler arriving at Terminal C for a 9 am pickup who budgets two minutes for the transfer has budgeted for the wrong page, and the same logic applies to the hotel shuttles that also hang off the AirTrain.
Giving the car back, and the bills that arrive later
For the return, what the airport gives is a GPS string rather than an address: enter “Terminal A Parking Newark” to find the Rental Car Center. That is the sort of instruction that only exists because the obvious search takes drivers to the wrong side of the airport.
Fuel comes next, and the guidance is thin but useful: refuel before returning, and Newark Liberty confirms “there are gas stations located within two miles of the airport for your refueling needs”. No station is named and no price is published, so the two-mile radius is the whole of the published help.
An electric rental has its charger in the same building. Newark Liberty puts its chargers in Lot P4 at ground level and in Parking A on levels 4 and 5, run by ChargePoint and PowerFlex, which places them two floors above the rental desks on levels 1 through 3. The parking fee for those spaces is collected separately on exit, so charging a car you are about to hand back is worth timing rather than improvising.
Tolls are where a Newark rental quietly gets more expensive. The published warning is direct: “all Port Authority crossings in New Jersey use cashless tolling, meaning you will be billed electronically”, and warns travelers to check the rental company’s toll policy “and any administrative fees they may add for using their transponder”. The toll is the small number; the daily convenience fee attached to the transponder is the one that compounds across a week.
- The Rental Car Center is inside the Parking A garage at Terminal A, on Levels 1, 2 and 3.
- From Terminal A you walk. From B or C you take the AirTrain first, at 3 to 5 minutes between trains.
- Between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. that train runs every 15 minutes and serves Terminals B and C only.
- Newark Liberty prices the Terminal A station link at a 15-minute covered walk or a 5-minute shuttle.
- Brands that share a level share a phone number: Dollar and Thrifty print the same one.
- Refuel within two miles, and ask about transponder admin fees before you take the keys.
Editorial note: prices, schedules, and policies on this page were checked against the official sources named in the text in September 2026. Treat every figure here as a reference point rather than a quote: operators change fares and hours without notice, and many vary by season, by event and by demand. Confirm the current price with the operator before you travel. Westchester Ride does not sell tickets or parking and does not accept payment to rank any operator.
Common questions about renting a car at Newark Airport
Six answers, each taken from what Newark Liberty published in September 2026.
Inside the Parking A garage at Terminal A, on Levels 1 through 3. The airport calls it a consolidated Rental Car Center and lists ten companies there, each with a level and a phone number.
By AirTrain to the Terminal A station, then signs to the Rental Car Center. Trains run every 3 to 5 minutes by day, and every 15 minutes between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., when they serve Terminals B and C only.
The rental page calls it a covered corridor and gives no time. The AirTrain page prices the Terminal A link at a 15-minute covered walk or a 5-minute shuttle ride, and says the AirTrain does not connect directly to Terminal A.
Ten: Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty and Sixt on Level 1, Enterprise, National and Alamo on Level 2, and Avis, Budget and Payless on Level 3. Dollar and Thrifty publish the same phone number.
To the same building. The airport tells drivers to enter Terminal A Parking Newark into a GPS to find the Rental Car Center, and to refuel first, noting gas stations within two miles of the airport.
Electronically. All Port Authority crossings in New Jersey are cashless, so charges are billed to the vehicle. The airport advises checking the rental company’s toll policy and any administrative fees it adds for its transponder.
The counters are in a garage, and the garage is at the one terminal your flight probably did not use.
Related guides
The lot rates of $35 to $70 a day, the hotel shuttles and the drive from Westchester are covered separately.
