Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 17, 2018 Share #1 Posted August 17, 2018 Phil Murphy's solution to NJ Transit crisis? Hire workers from out of state Curtis Tate, North Jersey Record Published 2:31 p.m. ET Aug. 16, 2018 | Updated 4:52 p.m. ET Aug. 16, 2018 Gov. Phil Murphy speaks as Dianne Gutierrez-Scaccetti (L), Commissioner of Transportation, Kevin Corbett (R), Exec. Director of NJ Transit and senior staff members from NJ Transit Management, listen during an NJ Transit briefing at the NJ Transit Headquarters in Newark on 08/09/18. This is his first public appearance since the agency experienced major delays and cancellations while he was on vacation.(Photo: Mitsu Yasukawa/Northjersey.com) Video: https://www.northjersey.com/videos/news/local/2018/08/09/gov-phil-murphy-holds-nj-transit-briefing/948356002/ Sen. Patrick Diegnan, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said he had spoken to Sweeney and Coughlin, and they were receptive to passing a stand-alone bill. NJ Transit operates not only in New Jersey, but into New York's Penn Station and into Philadelphia's 30th Street Station. It has two commuter lines that reach Spring Valley and Port Jervis, New York. Yet the employees who report to work at those outlying terminals cannot live in those states. Former Gov. Chris Christie signed a law in 2011 that requires most state workers to live in New Jersey. NJ Transit is nearly 50 locomotive engineers short of what it needs to operate normally. The agency has a large number of engineers who have reached retirement age, or soon will. Meanwhile, younger but experienced workers have left for other job opportunities. It takes 20 months for NJ Transit to train its engineers, and although nine graduated this month, it will take some time for the agency to push the count higher. "We can't fix that pipeline in six months," said Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, the state's transportation commissioner and chairwoman of the NJ Transit board of directors. In another effort to bring more qualified employees onboard, Gutierrez-Scaccetti announced a partnership with the state departments of education and labor and office of higher education, which will launch a training initiative. The agencies will work with vocational/technical schools and community colleges to bring new locomotive engineers into the workforce. "NJ Transit needs a consistent and sustainable pipeline of skilled labor to provide the excellent service our commuters deserve," she said. Commuters have weathered weeks of abruptly canceled trains because the agency simply doesn't have enough locomotive engineers to run the trains. In the meantime, the agency's effort to install positive train control, a collision-avoidance system it's required to have, has consumed personnel and equipment. NJ Transit officials cite the system's looming Dec. 31 deadline as the reason behind its decision to close the Atlantic City rail line for at least the rest of the year starting next month. Gutierrez-Scaccetti said that was a "hard choice" and assured lawmakers that the service would eventually be restored. "We are going to have to make very tough decisions to make sure NJ Transit gets back to where it needs to be," she said. Murphy held a news conference at NJ Transit headquarters in Newark last week to quell rising anger and frustration among commuters and lawmakers. Initially, he promised little more immediate change than better communication. Thursday's move was his first concrete step toward solving the agency's chronic personnel shortage. "Hiring new NJ Transit employees, particularly skilled and fully trained engineers, is an absolute necessity to provide reliability and stability to commuters," he said. Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, R-Union, who has long sought to change the residency requirement, not just for NJ Transit employees, but for other public employees as well, said he supports the passage of a limited exemption for the agency. "Why not lift this rule and grab highly trained candidates from other states while we can?" he asked. "Commuters need us to use every tool at our disposal." A provision to lift the residency requirement is part of an NJ Transit restructuring bill pursued by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, and former Sen. Bob Gordon, D-Fair Lawn. The Senate has approved the bill, and it awaits a vote in the Assembly. The completion of an audit of NJ Transit's personnel practices, finances and safety compliance may spur other actions. The audit, which Murphy ordered as one of his first acts in office in January, was originally supposed to be completed in the spring. Gutierrez-Scaccetti told lawmakers the audit would be finished next month. Video: https://www.northjersey.com/videos/news/transportation/2018/08/09/nj-transit-summer-hell-year-round-commuters-say/952483002/ NJ Transit commuters discuss issues they experience while commuting on Thursday August 09, 2018. Anne-Marie Caruso, North Jersey Source: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/transportation/2018/08/16/phil-murphy-allow-nj-transit-hire-workers-who-live-out-state/1007924002/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mtatransit Posted August 18, 2018 Share #2 Posted August 18, 2018 At this point anything helps. The residency requirement was ridiculous anyways because if there was better opportunities in other states, more people are going to leave, and the agency will have a hard time finding people in NJ because there is only so many people here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
46Dover Posted August 19, 2018 Share #3 Posted August 19, 2018 On 8/17/2018 at 11:40 PM, Mtatransit said: At this point anything helps. The residency requirement was ridiculous anyways because if there was better opportunities in other states, more people are going to leave, and the agency will have a hard time finding people in NJ because there is only so many people here The thing with that is: I had lived in Brooklyn and was working for Community Coach in Paramus; when I got my paycheck I saw that I was getting taxed as a New York resident and working in New Jersey and barely had enough money to cross the GW 😖. Wonder if they see their paycheck the would be engineers would either quit or be like me and move to Jersey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share #4 Posted August 19, 2018 On 8/17/2018 at 11:40 PM, Mtatransit said: At this point anything helps. The residency requirement was ridiculous anyways because if there was better opportunities in other states, more people are going to leave, and the agency will have a hard time finding people in NJ because there is only so many people here You’re missing the point. The point of the residency was to hire NJ residents. NJ Transit is funded by NJ tax dollars primarily and thus the thinking is that NJ residents should get first dibs on such jobs and I agree. If every state took care of their own residents in terms of jobs it would be better. It’s the same thing when residents here in NYC become angry when they can’t find jobs in their own community when projects open up because everyone that is hired does not live in the community, so here comes these people building and making a profit off of the community and yet the community doesn’t reap any of those profits. Same thing here. If they can’t find anyone within NJ or don’t have enough workers, sure open it up to out of state, but NJ residents should be taken care first and foremost. It means tax dollars staying within the state rather than going out of it. I think the real issue here isn’t about not having enough people in NJ, but rather poor recruiting, so now they are scrambling to find people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
go25 Posted August 19, 2018 Share #5 Posted August 19, 2018 Shit I might considering testing the waters for the locomotive engineer gig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailRunRob Posted August 19, 2018 Share #6 Posted August 19, 2018 3 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said: I think the real issue here isn’t about not having enough people in NJ, but rather poor recruiting, so now they are scrambling to find people. How do we know it's recruiting? What's NJT requirements? I don't think it's big of a circle that Recruiters aren't hitting the right talent pools. It's a regional thing there are other Railroads in the region so there bound to be a bit of competition for talent. They should open it up. I believe maybe the talent isn't there in NJ. But at this point it doesn't matter trains need to keep moving get the talent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share #7 Posted August 19, 2018 1 minute ago, RailRunRob said: How do we know it's recruiting? What's NJT requirements? I don't think it's big of a circle that Recruiters aren't hitting the right talent pools. It's a regional thing there are other Railroads in the region so there bound to be a bit of competition for talent. They should open it up. I believe maybe the talent isn't there in NJ. But at this point it doesn't matter trains need to keep moving get the talent. Pretty simple. They haven’t been keeping up with getting in new engineers as old ones retire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailRunRob Posted August 19, 2018 Share #8 Posted August 19, 2018 55 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said: Pretty simple. They haven’t been keeping up with getting in new engineers as old ones retire. How does that work? On a basic level, Jim retires Friday the 3rd who runs the 6:30 am out of Trenton come Monday? Are they not filling the spots or is NJT bleeding Talent to neighboring Railroads due to better pay and perks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share #9 Posted August 19, 2018 49 minutes ago, RailRunRob said: How does that work? On a basic level, Jim retires Friday the 3rd who runs the 6:30 am out of Trenton come Monday? Are they not filling the spots or is NJT bleeding Talent to neighboring Railroads due to better pay and perks? It’s been going for years... Engineers retiring and not being replaced, so yes, they haven’t been actively recruiting. Now given the circumstances it makes sense to open things up to give them a bigger pool to fill the vacancies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailRunRob Posted August 19, 2018 Share #10 Posted August 19, 2018 1 hour ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said: . Engineers retiring and not being replaced, so yes, they haven’t been actively recruiting. So who's been running these trains? With the gap left by retirees? They've been canceling trains? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojiMet86 Posted August 19, 2018 Share #11 Posted August 19, 2018 This has building up for a while, it's not really new. Go to the railroad.net forums and see for yourself. Back in June when MCI was showing off the D45 CRT, one of the MCI representives told me that NJT was desperate for manpower. And one of my friends had told me that he applied for positions months ago, even though he lives in New York. He said they told him they were willing to waive the residency rule. It's why they cancelled service on the Atlantic City line. Better use the available crews on the big lines and not wasting them on the AC line, which by far has the lowest daily ridership of any NJT line. Of course, I can't really trust them in returning service in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mtatransit Posted August 19, 2018 Share #12 Posted August 19, 2018 4 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said: Pretty simple. They haven’t been keeping up with getting in new engineers as old ones retire. Not only that, many people are flocking to other railroads due to better pay (Metro North). This and the previous administrations funding cutting . The first thing they did in the 2010 cuts was to freeze the hiring of staff at NJT. I don't think they ever unfroze that until it was too late. (They did however put in Christie's appointee without issue) 1 hour ago, RailRunRob said: So who's been running these trains? With the gap left by retirees? They've been canceling trains? Overtime and extras board. From what I read, the extras board is basically working everyday now. Of course these two are not enough hence the cancelled trains Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailRunRob Posted August 19, 2018 Share #13 Posted August 19, 2018 18 minutes ago, Mtatransit said: Not only that, many people are flocking to other railroads due to better pay (Metro North). This and the previous administrations funding cutting Wow. Kinda figured that was somewhat the case! Plus the hiring freeze double whammy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
46Dover Posted August 20, 2018 Share #14 Posted August 20, 2018 You also have some bus operators looking to cross over to rail side which is essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreeddekalbL Posted October 19, 2018 Share #15 Posted October 19, 2018 On 8/19/2018 at 10:53 PM, 46Dover said: You also have some bus operators looking to cross over to rail side which is essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul.... plus arent some of them bolting to nyct also an example of some who did is a previously active member known as igor and a member known as ironboundnjt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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