After leaving Pencey, Holden takes a train to which city?

After leaving Pencey, Holden takes a train to New York City.

Holden has been expelled from Pencey Preparatory School after failing most of his classes. Rather than immediately return home and face his parents, he leaves early and travels to New York, where his family lives.

He arrives before his parents have received the official notice of his expulsion, allowing him a few days of freedom. Instead of going straight home, he checks into a hotel and wanders through the city, meeting acquaintances and strangers during the long weekend.

New York is more than a setting: it gives Holden temporary distance from school and family while exposing his loneliness. The city’s nightlife, hotels, bars, museums, and Central Park all become stages for his uneasy attempts to find connection.