New Jersey Transit train engineers have gone on strike, leaving train terminals quiet for Friday's rush hour in the nation's third-largest transit system, and an estimated 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home. Groups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn't produce an agreement, per the AP. It's the state's first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement.
The announcement came after 15 hours of nonstop contract talks, according to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union. "We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock," said Tom Haas, the union's general chairman. NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri, meanwhile, described the situation as a "pause in the conversations." "I think this is an imminently workable problem," he said late Thursday during a joint news conference with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. "The question is, do they have the willingness to come to a solution?"
Murphy, for his part, said it was important to "reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey's commuters and taxpayers," noting that "we cannot ignore the agency's fiscal realities." The agency announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but it warned riders that the buses would only add "very limited" capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and wouldn't start running until Monday.
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In New York, some commuters from New Jersey said they couldn't work remotely and had to come in, taking buses to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan. "I left home very early because of it," said fashion and advertising casting director David Milosevich, who noted that he grabbed the bus in Montclair, New Jersey, and arrived in Manhattan at 7am. Because Friday tends to be a light commuter day in the New York City area, "I don't know what's going to happen Monday," he added. More here, including on the "main sticking point" in negotiations. (More public transportation stories.)
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