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Yahoo
20-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Manic Monday: NJ Transit strike is over — but commuters still feeling the pain: ‘Pandemonium!'
NJ Transit riders are breathing a sigh of relief as the rail system reached a tentative agreement to bring a short-lived engineers' strike to an end, but they're coping with one more miserable day until trains are back in service. Long lines snaked throughout the third floor of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan Monday afternoon, well ahead of the usual rush-hour crush, as commuters scrambled to catch shuttles to park-and-ride lots on the other side of the Hudson. 'I told my boss on Friday that I'll be leaving early as long as this thing went on. Look at this line! It's not even 2:30 in the afternoon yet, and there's a hundred people on this line,' Bob P., 26, who was waiting to catch a shuttle bus to the Old Bridge park-and-ride, told The Post. 'Do you have any idea what this is going to look like at 5 or 6 at night? Pandemonium!' Youth worker Terry Jones, 47, got into a shouting match with a transit worker during the evening rush hour after he thought the staffer was too aggressive corralling commuters. 'I just want you to put me on my bus,' Jones yelled at the worker before getting on an escalator. 'Stop talking to me. Leave! Like get a supervisor, Jesus Christ.' Jones' trip into the city from Carteret would usually take 45 minutes, but it was double that time Monday morning and made him late for work. 'If it's a one out of 10 —10. Pissed off. Ten, yeah, a 10. I'm pissed off,' he seethed. 'This is ridiculous … That makes me feel horrible, especially in stuff with these trying times and stuff with jobs that are laying people off.' When Ankit Kumar, 21, arrived at the Port Authority Monday evening, he quickly reversed course and went back to his office for two more hours until the throngs of commuters shrank. 'It's extremely annoying because you're supposed to get home after 6 [p.m.], I get home around 7 [p.m.], but it's going to be 9 or 10 [p.m.] and I have to get up at 6 [a.m.] again tomorrow,' the paralegal said. 'I'm obviously annoyed and irritated.' Kumar, who typically has a three-hour commute, said he was already considering moving to the Big Apple – but now the short-lived strike has made that a stronger possibility. Technician Ansel Walters, 49, stood in a long line after he initially thought his days on a shuttle bus were over when he heard a deal was reached. His typical commute is a mere 35 minutes, but now it's two-and-a-half hours. 'Actually, while I was on the buses, a few people got frustrated and got off because it was just taking too long,' Walters said. Property manager Sharon Adamo, 64, was ready to return to a more comfortable ride the rest of the week. 'People standing on the bus, I think it's outrageous, it's uncomfortable, it is dangerous,' said Adamo, whose round-trip commute to and from Rahway has been extended by about an hour. The Garden State-owned public transit provider made a deal to bump pay for engineers, who have not had a raise since 2019. The agreement was reached after two days of tense negotiations, culminating with a work stoppage that saw 450 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union members walk off the job Friday after midnight. The work stoppage — the first for the rail system since 1983 — led to a stressful commute for tens of thousands of New Jersey residents. 'I am delighted to report that NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) have reached a tentative agreement and as a result, New Jersey's first rail strike in decades has officially come to an end,' Gov. Phil Murphy said at a press conference Sunday night. Union leadership initially said 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 NJ Transit, Murphy and a union rep later amended the scheduling, saying trains won't start running until 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. The transit agency released a schedule of the first trains expected to run predawn Tuesday with the earliest trains set to run around 4 a.m. 'Friday sucked! The first bus at 5:05 a.m. didn't even show up in the morning, and then this morning this bus was late,' Tom Krebs, 61, a Manhattan doorman who lives in Riverside said. 'I mean, on the bright side, they opened up the bus lane early this morning, like around 5:30 a.m., so we got here with no problem. But man, I am glad they settled it! I've been a doorman for 42 years, and this is not what I needed just before retirement.' Jeanne Lotte, 31, an executive assistant jumping on a bus to Secaucus, was also thrilled to see the strike reach its conclusion. 'I'm sneaking out of work early so don't tell my boss. It was a nightmare getting into that parking lot this morning. Thank God this is not going to go on for days and days,' she said. 'This morning was pretty frantic. The looks on people's faces was enough to scare the hell out of you.' Additional reporting by David Propper.
New York Post
15-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
NJ Transit strike appears ever more likely ahead of midnight deadline: ‘It's going to be ugly'
NJ Transit riders are facing massive service disruptions as the system barrels like a runaway train toward Thursday's midnight deadline to avoid its first major rail strike in over 40 years. The Garden State-owned rail service has already festooned stations with screaming-red signage warning of deep service cuts starting at midnight Friday if contract negotiations with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union fall through. Deep rail service cuts will start at midnight Friday if contract negotiations with NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union fall through. Christopher Sadowski 'CRITICAL SERVICE ADVISORY: Due to a potential rail stoppage, NJ Transit strongly advises all train customers to complete their travels and arrive at their final destination no later than 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 15th,' reads one sign on a TV monitor at Port Authority Bus Terminal. Commuters told The Post they're already trying to figure out alternatives to public transit should the strike still happen — and the options are rough on the pocketbook. NJ resident Lisa Monroe, 53, who works in media, said working for home is not an option for her, and that driving back and forth to the city five days a week will add up to around $425 a week, not including gas. 'Honestly I don't know what I'm going to do,' she said, noting she's already considering what expenses she can reduce on to make it work. 'We have to spend more money on getting to work, just to commute, and your salary is not going to match. My salary is not going to go out with the additional $85 or more a day because of a strike. I have to cut back.' In spite of this, Monroe said she had sympathy for the NJ Transit workers walking off the job. 'I don't want to blame the workers for going on strike, but it's a hardship for me.' NJ Transit is already warning travelers to prepare for service disruptions ahead of Friday's labor negotiation deadline. AP Commuter Maritza Moreira, 37, who works in construction, said she's thinking about staying with her mother in the city with her 9-month-old daughter and her husband, who also works in New York, though it might be cramped quarters, she said. 'I have reached my limits. It's getting more and more frustrating everyday. The train was extremely late today and I just don't understand why. People are paying, they're packed and now they're talking about a strike. I just can't understand about the money. The tickets aren't getting cheaper. The prices went up so I don't see where it's going,' she said. Moreira said she's even considering fleeing the Garden State and moving to the South — in part due to frustration with the trains. She works from home three days a week but is hoping to convince her employer to up it to five days. With only hours to go until the deadline, the impact could be felt by riders as soon as midnight Thursday. 'There are no replacement workers, and it's definitely going to involve interruptions in service — NJ Transit is being very clear about that,' Micah Rasmussen, Director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics and a former communications director for ex-NJ Gov. Jim McGreevy told The Post. 'It's not as if service can just be cobbled together on a shoestring, and they know that. I think it's going to be ugly,' Rasmussen said of a possible rail strike, though he said he was hopeful the negotiations — which saw the sides meet in Washington, DC, this week, will bear fruit. 'It sounds like there is a possible ray of hope there. We'll see. We'll know by midnight.' A source familiar with the ongoing discussions between NJ Transit and the union told The Post that although there had been setbacks, there's also 'been some real bargaining going on,' but that 'whether they have enough time to get it done remains to be seen.' Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers general chairman Tom Haas said during negotiations on Wednesday that he was 'optimistic' an agreement can be reached, the source said. NJ Transit announced on Monday it was preemptively cutting bus and rail service to MetLife Stadium Thursday and Friday due to the possible strike, where Shakira will be performing to an audience of tens of thousands. Thursday's concert is sold out, meaning the strikes could impact thousands of the stadium's 82,500 capacity crowd depending how many were planning on taking public transit.
New York Post
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
NJ Transit nixes train, bus service to Shakira concerts at MetLife over looming strike
NJ Transit typically brings passengers whenever, wherever — but they may be out luck if they're heading to a pair of upcoming Shakira shows at MetLife Stadium. The public transit agency announced it was nixing bus and rail service to the arena Thursday and Friday due to a potential strike planned by NJ Transit engineers by the end of the week. 3 The agency will suspend service to the arena on Thursday and Friday. Christopher Sadowski Advertisement 3 Shakira is set to perform at MetLife Stadium on both nights. Getty Images 'Due to the potential rail service stoppage, NJ TRANSIT will not be operating train or bus service to MetLife Stadium for the Shakira concerts on May 15th and 16th. Visit for more information & travel options,' the company wrote on social media Monday afternoon. If the strike happens, it would be the first for the Garden State-owned bus and rail service since 1983. Advertisement Thursday's concert is sold out, meaning the strikes could impact thousands of the stadium's 82,500 capacity crowd depending how many were planning on taking public transit. 3 With a capacity of over 82,000, thousands of concert goers could be affected by the suspended service. Christopher Sadowski NJ Transit reps and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union are set to meet in Washington Monday, where the sides will resume mediation in an attempt to avoid a work stoppage, according to NBC News. Around 800,000 passengers take NJ Transit buses and trains on a typical day, according to the company, translating to about 270 million riders annually. Advertisement Depending on how long a strike drags on, it could also impact Beyoncé's MetLife tour dates. She's set to play five shows at the Meadowlands, beginning May 22.
