Company-paid tickets are a decent perk; you generally get cheap tickets booked a month or so in advance, and there’s multi-trip ticket options (10 rides in a 45-day period) if you need to be last minute with which day you’re coming in. See r/Amtrak for more.

You’d be primarily taking the Northeast Regional or Acela, both are about as reliable as can be if all is well with the Hudson tunnels.

As far as travel time, that depends on where in JC you’d live and what time you’d need to get to Newark (or NYC) by.

Getting to Newark from JC is easiest if you live a short walk one of the WTC-Newark PATH stops (Journal Sq, Grove St, Exchange Pl). Weekday morning frequencies are around every 5 mins, and budget some time to get around in Newark Penn. It’s harder if you have a connecting bus to the PATH.

Otherwise, it’s not a bad option either to live in NYC and go via NY Penn. Two options for pretty similar cost, these days.