NJ Transit service resumes Tuesday following rail engineers strike
NJ Transit service resumes Tuesday following rail engineers strike 01:52
NJ Transit service resumes Tuesday after the agency reached a tentative agreement with the engineers union to end their strike.
NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri gave an update Tuesday morning, telling riders, "we're so grateful for them and the patience they exercised during the strike."
"I took the train this morning from Princeton Junction," he said. "It was on time, the windows were clean, and the customers and our riders couldn't have been any more happy."
NJ Transit strike update
Although the strike ended Sunday night, hundreds of trains and miles of tracks had to be inspected before service was fully restored. Officials said the process takes up to 24 hours.
Service had been halted since last Friday, impacting hundreds of thousands of riders.
"We are in the business of running trains and buses, we're not in the business of stopping them," Kolluri said Tuesday morning.
Government sources tell CBS News New York the deal with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) will not increase fares, at least for the next few years.
Both sides are saying little about the deal until it's ratified next month.
The union's general manager said in a statement it "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."
The NJ Transit board will also have to approve the deal after union members vote on it.
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Elijah Westbrook
Elijah Westbrook is an Emmy award-winning journalist. He joined CBS News New York in January 2022.