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Even though the NJ Transit strike has been tentatively settled, Gov. Phil Murphy asked commuters who can work from home May 19 to give the agency time to get the trains ready to roll May 20.
“To offer the understatement of the year, this is a very good outcome,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at a May 18 press briefing in Newark. “The sound you probably hear is the collective sigh of our commuters.”
Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen who run NJ Transit trains went on strike May 16 in a disagreement over wages, bringing the agency’s rail service to a grinding halt.
NJ Transit is the third-largest transit system in the country, with an impressive fleet of buses, trains and light rail vehicles.
Negotiators reached a deal around 7 p.m. on May 18.
What will Monday look like?
NJ Transit’s roughly 172,000 weekday rail riders will need to consider alternatives. The majority of NJ Transit’s bus riders commute to their work sites five days a week, compared with about 30% of customers who commute by train.
About 58% of NJ Transit rail riders have hybrid schedules, 9% have the choice to work in office or at home, and 3% are fully remote, according to a survey of about 44,000 NJ Transit customers last year. Some employers offered their employees the opportunity to work from home if the strike stretched into May 19.
Four park-and-ride pickup locations in New Jersey will operate during peak weekday hours starting May 19. Service, which will be provided by Academy Express and a bus broker company, TMS Logistics, will operate only in the peak direction:
- Pickup from Secaucus Junction Bus Plaza going to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan will take place between 6 and 9:30 a.m.; returning riders can get picked up from the bus terminal and dropped at Secaucus between 3 and 7:30 p.m.
- Pickup from PNC Bank Arts Center going to the Port Authority Bus Terminal will take place between 5 and 8 a.m.; returning riders can get picked up from the bus terminal and dropped at PNC between 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.
- Pickup from Hamilton Rail Station going to Newark Penn Station, where riders can transfer to PATH, will take place from 5 to 9 a.m.; returning riders can get picked up at Newark Penn Station and dropped off at the Hamilton station between 3 and 7 p.m.
- Pickup from Woodbridge Center mall going to the Harrison PATH station will take place from 6 to 10 a.m.; returning riders can get picked up at Harrison PATH and dropped off at Woodbridge between 4 and 8 p.m.
A handful of NJ Transit’s bus routes will shore up service to meet the demand:
- Northeast Corridor: 108, 112, 115 and 129 bus routes.
- North Jersey Coast Line: 116 and 133/135 bus routes.
- Raritan Valley Line: 112 and 113 bus routes.
- Morris & Essex Lines: 107 bus routes.
- Montclair-Boonton Lines: 193 and 324 bus routes.
- Main/Bergen County Lines: 145, 163, 164 and 190 bus routes.
- Pascack Valley Line: 163, 164 and 165 bus routes.
Ferry services operated by NY Waterway and the NJ Transit Newark light rail will increase service, along with Boxcar private bus service, with six routes in Morris, Union, Essex and Bergen counties, which had already doubled its service in Bergen starting May 12.
Meanwhile the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has no plan to increase service along the PATH rapid transit system unless needed and said it would watch for such a need. A list of private carriers running midtown direct service to the Port Authority bus terminal can be found at panynj.gov/bus-terminals/en/carriers-routes.html, but be sure to check the carriers’ websites and social media platforms for changes in service.
Riders can visit njtransit.com/restartfor updates.
