A tentative deal between NJ Transit and its locomotive engineers has ended New Jersey’s first statewide rail strike in more than 40 years, with full service set to return Tuesday, officials said Sunday night.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) suspended its walkout after two days of post-strike talks, capping a shutdown of began at midnight Friday and left some 350,000 commuters scrambling while the agency rolled out emergency buses and urged employers to let staff work remotely.
“The sound that you probably hear is the sound of our state’s commuters breathing a collective sigh of relief,” Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said at a press conference Sunday night. “So now it’s time to get NJ Transit back to full speed for our commuters and riders, and to continue building on our progress in fixing NJ Transit for the thousands upon thousands of New Jerseyians who rely on it every day.”
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said returning the railroad to service requires 24 hours of safety checks, so regular schedules will resume Tuesday even though engineers will report to work Monday. The agency’s contingency plan — chartered buses from four park-and-ride hubs and expanded light rail — will cover the Monday rush, according to a press release.
Both sides reconvened Sunday, forming the compromise after talks collapsed late Thursday. Terms were not disclosed, but BLET negotiators said the package boosts engineer pay toward parity with Amtrak and New York commuter lines. Engineers, who say they have gone five years without a raise, will vote electronically on the pact; NJ Transit’s board is vote on June 11, a BLET press release said.
“While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month and beyond where we were when NJ Transit’s managers walked away from the table Thursday evening,” Tom Haas, the union’s general chairman at NJ Transit, said in the press release. “We were also able to show management ways to boost engineers’ wages that will help NJT with retention and recruitment, without causing any significant budget issue or requiring a fare increase.”
Murphy praised Kolluri as “this week’s MVP.” Union leaders, meanwhile, thanked Congress for staying out — unlike the 2022 freight rail dispute — and argued that allowing limited strikes can accelerate deals. Neither NJ Transit nor BLET immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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