New Jersey Transit has reached a tentative deal with its striking union members on Sunday, but Jersey residents should still expect a messy Monday commute.
Trains won’t be up and running just yet — as the first NJ Transit strike in decades is set to end after midnight Tuesday, a union official told The Post.
The transit agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen hashed out the final details of an agreement after two days of negotiations, a spokesperson for the union said.
The new contract comes after 400 union members walked off the job Friday after midnight, leading to a stressful commute for tens of thousands of New Jersey residents.
BLET leadership initially claimed the commuting nightmare was over and its workers “will return to work and trains will begin running on their regular schedules Monday,” according to Politico, but a union official told The Post trains won’t start running until 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday.
NJ Transit said the trains can’t return until then because it takes about 24 hours for workers to “inspect and prepare tracks, rail cars, and other infrastructure” before the rail service is back up and running after the pause.
The terms of the deal were not immediately known, but New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was expected to provide more information Sunday night.
The two sides were attempting to hammer out an agreement that would bump pay for the train engineers while not causing financial ruin for the embattled transit agency.
BLET’s General Chairman at NJ Transit, Tom Haas, said the union was able to negotiate a boost to hourly pay after the engineers had not had a new raise in five years.
“We also were 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,” Haas said in a statement.
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri had previously said that while the union and railroad were close with pay late Thursday, the structure of the contract had to be settled.
He encouraged commuters who depend on NJ Transit to work from home Friday while noting there would be a surge in bus service to help alleviate the impending chaos.
The striking train workers and the Garden State’s railroad company had “constructive” talks Saturday, but couldn’t come to an agreement before coming back to the table Sunday.
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