NJ Transit just sent out a big, fat service advisory to all its loyal customers, warning them to get their butts moving before midnight or risk being left high and dry at the beginning of the first rail strike in ages. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is planning to ditch work at 12:01 a.m. on Friday due to some contract beef, potentially leaving around 350,000 poor souls scrambling to find another way to their destinations.
The agency is feeling all apologetic about the whole mess, saying they totally get how inconvenient it’s gonna be and asking for some patience and understanding as they try to sort things out. They’re even suggesting folks work from home starting Friday to avoid the impending chaos. So, yeah, things are about to get real messy.
What’s the deal with NJ Transit, you ask? Well, it’s the third-largest transit system in the nation, operating buses and rail to provide nearly a million weekday trips, including the ones to NYC. If this strike goes down, it’s gonna put a stop to all those commuter trains shuttling people between the Big Apple and northern New Jersey. Talk about a major headache!
Seems like money is the root of all evil in this situation. The union is claiming its members are pulling in an average of $113,000 a year and they’re demanding that the big boss agrees to bump that up to $170,000 annually. On the other hand, NJ Transit is throwing some shade back, saying the engineers are actually raking in an average of $135,000 a year, with some of them even hitting the $200,000 mark. That’s a whole lot of dough up for grabs.
In case the engineers decide to take a little vacation from work, NJ Transit is planning to ramp up bus service to pick up the slack. They’re talking about adding some extra buses to the existing routes heading to NYC and hiring private carriers to run buses from key locations during peak hours. But let’s be real, those buses ain’t gonna cut it for the masses. Only about 20% of the usual crowd will fit in those buses, so if you can work from home, you might wanna start making those arrangements.
It’s already causing some hiccups, with NJ Transit canceling service to the Shakira concerts at MetLife Stadium and giving Beyonce fans a heads up that they might be left hanging soon. The MTA is also prepping for potential chaos by rolling out new options on Metro-North in case NJ Transit can’t get its act together with the engineers. The clock is ticking, and it’s not looking too good.
If things do go south, NJ Transit is planning to bus people from all over the state to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan or to PATH train stations in North Jersey. But here’s the kicker – each bus can only take about a hundred passengers, and they won’t be rolling on the first day of the strike. So, good luck squeezing in there if you’re one of the unlucky ones.
Negotiations have been dragging on for what feels like forever, with the union rejecting a “reasonable wage increase” offer from management. Both sides are throwing around numbers, but no one seems to agree on what’s fair. The engineers are feeling shortchanged, saying they haven’t seen a raise in five years and just want to be on par with their colleagues at other rail agencies. The drama is real, folks.
Governor Phil Murphy is keeping his cards close to his chest, hinting at a state of emergency if things really hit the fan. But hey, he’s crossing his fingers for a last-minute miracle. Let’s just hope they can kiss and make up before it all goes down in flames.
