Latest news with #Metro-North
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Metro-North and Amtrak in heavy delays after power line failure in Connecticut
Commuters in New York and Connecticut were experiencing heavy delays Friday morning, after a Thursday evening outage hampered Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad service through Connecticut. The overhead catenary power lines for all four tracks east of Westport failed shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday night, a transit source told the Daily News, bringing service on Metro-North's New Haven Line and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor to a halt. An MTA spokesman said crews worked through the night, enabling operation on at least one track in the overnight hours. By morning, service had been restored on two tracks, according to Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams. The first Metro-North train of the day, Train 1188 bound for NYC from New Haven, departed 15 minutes late and did not make all stops, an MTA spokesman said, and residual 15 minute delays had continued throughout the morning. Amtrak was reporting continued heavy rail congestion after the morning rush as repair work was ongoing. 'All services operating between Stamford and New Haven are currently experiencing a delay due to an electrical system outage, resulting in heavy rail congestion and speed restrictions in the area,' the federal railway said in a statement 'Our rail partner's track maintenance team is currently working to restore the electrical system.' The cause of the outage is still under investigation.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With NJ Transit engineers on strike, here's what commuters need to know
A labor dispute between NJ Transit's locomotive engineers and the Garden State transit agency's management became New Jersey's first rail strike in more than 40 years as of Friday morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time. Here's what commuters need to know: As of a minute past midnight Friday, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen — the union representing about 450 Garden State train engineers — walked off the job after BLET and NJ Transit management spent the day at the bargaining table in Newark on Thursday. The move impacts more than 350,000 commuters. The disagreement comes down to wages. NJ Transit engineers say they want parity with their colleagues at Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, while management says that will lead every other union to ask for similar raises and endanger the financial security of the agency. The MTA's Long Island Rail Road, where an engineer's hourly rate is $49.92, is the busiest of the nation's commuter railroads. Metro-North, in second place, pays $57.20 an hour. Currently, NJ Transit engineers, who operate the nation's third busiest commuter system, start at $39.78 an hour — a figure that includes the NJ Transit engineers who operate within New York state on Metro-North's west-of-Hudson lines. The BLET and NJ Transit reached a tentative contract agreement in March, after working without a contract since the start of 2020. That agreement, according to NJ Transit President Kris Kolluri, included a pay bump that would have seen BLET members earn $49.82 an hour by the summer. But the contract was overwhelmingly rejected by the union rank-and-file, who voted it down by 87%. But LIRR engineers are in the midst of their own negotiations, and BLET's New Jersey boss, Tom Haas, has said any parity with the Long Island engineers would therefore be fleeting. No. NJ Transit is hoping to offer other ways to travel. The state's buses — whose unionized drivers just reached a contract agreement with NJ Transit this month — will still be running, and NJ Transit management is hoping to use them to ease the pain. The transit agency will run 'park and ride' routes, with NJT buses taking people from Secaucus Junction to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, from the Hamilton rail station to Newark Penn's PATH station, and from the Woodbridge Mall to the Harrison PATH station. Private contractor Academy Bus will also operate a park-and-ride from the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel to the Port Authority Bus Terminal — but Academy will not be accepting NJ Transit tickets. Bus service will be increased on a series of regular New York-bound routes, and NJ Transit rail tickets to or from New York, Newark or Hoboken will be cross-honored on NJ Transit buses and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. It's unclear. NJ Transit rail strikes are a rarity. An NJ Transit rail dispute seemed headed for a strike back in 2016, but eleventh-hour negotiations averted a work stoppage. The Garden State's engineers last hit the picket lines in 1983, when they struck for 34 days. _____
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With NJ Transit engineers on strike, here's what commuters need to know
A labor dispute between NJ Transit's locomotive engineers and the Garden State transit agency's management became New Jersey's first rail strike in more than 40 years as of Friday morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time. Here's what commuters need to know: As of a minute past midnight Friday, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen — the union representing about 450 Garden State train engineers — walked off the job after BLET and NJ Transit management spent the day at the bargaining table in Newark on Thursday. The move impacts more than 350,000 commuters. The disagreement comes down to wages. NJ Transit engineers say they want parity with their colleagues at Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, while management says that will lead every other union to ask for similar raises and endanger the financial security of the agency. The MTA's Long Island Rail Road, where an engineer's hourly rate is $49.92, is the busiest of the nation's commuter railroads. Metro-North, in second place, pays $57.20 an hour. Currently, NJ Transit engineers, who operate the nation's third busiest commuter system, start at $39.78 an hour — a figure that includes the NJ Transit engineers who operate within New York state on Metro-North's west-of-Hudson lines. The BLET and NJ Transit reached a tentative contract agreement in March, after working without a contract since the start of 2020. That agreement, according to NJ Transit President Kris Kolluri, included a pay bump that would have seen BLET members earn $49.82 an hour by the summer. But the contract was overwhelmingly rejected by the union rank-and-file, who voted it down by 87%. But LIRR engineers are in the midst of their own negotiations, and BLET's New Jersey boss, Tom Haas, has said any parity with the Long Island engineers would therefore be fleeting. No. NJ Transit is hoping to offer other ways to travel. The state's buses — whose unionized drivers just reached a contract agreement with NJ Transit this month — will still be running, and NJ Transit management is hoping to use them to ease the pain. The transit agency will run 'park and ride' routes, with NJT buses taking people from Secaucus Junction to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, from the Hamilton rail station to Newark Penn's PATH station, and from the Woodbridge Mall to the Harrison PATH station. Private contractor Academy Bus will also operate a park-and-ride from the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel to the Port Authority Bus Terminal — but Academy will not be accepting NJ Transit tickets. Bus service will be increased on a series of regular New York-bound routes, and NJ Transit rail tickets to or from New York, Newark or Hoboken will be cross-honored on NJ Transit buses and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. It's unclear. NJ Transit rail strikes are a rarity. An NJ Transit rail dispute seemed headed for a strike back in 2016, but eleventh-hour negotiations averted a work stoppage. The Garden State's engineers last hit the picket lines in 1983, when they struck for 34 days. _____
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With NJ Transit engineers on strike, here's what commuters need to know
A labor dispute between NJ Transit's locomotive engineers and the Garden State transit agency's management became New Jersey's first rail strike in more than 40 years as of Friday morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time. Here's what commuters need to know: As of a minute past midnight Friday, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen — the union representing about 450 Garden State train engineers — walked off the job after BLET and NJ Transit management spent the day at the bargaining table in Newark on Thursday. The move impacts more than 350,000 commuters. The disagreement comes down to wages. NJ Transit engineers say they want parity with their colleagues at Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, while management says that will lead every other union to ask for similar raises and endanger the financial security of the agency. The MTA's Long Island Rail Road, where an engineer's hourly rate is $49.92, is the busiest of the nation's commuter railroads. Metro-North, in second place, pays $57.20 an hour. Currently, NJ Transit engineers, who operate the nation's third busiest commuter system, start at $39.78 an hour — a figure that includes the NJ Transit engineers who operate within New York state on Metro-North's west-of-Hudson lines. The BLET and NJ Transit reached a tentative contract agreement in March, after working without a contract since the start of 2020. That agreement, according to NJ Transit President Kris Kolluri, included a pay bump that would have seen BLET members earn $49.82 an hour by the summer. But the contract was overwhelmingly rejected by the union rank-and-file, who voted it down by 87%. But LIRR engineers are in the midst of their own negotiations, and BLET's New Jersey boss, Tom Haas, has said any parity with the Long Island engineers would therefore be fleeting. No. NJ Transit is hoping to offer other ways to travel. The state's buses — whose unionized drivers just reached a contract agreement with NJ Transit this month — will still be running, and NJ Transit management is hoping to use them to ease the pain. The transit agency will run 'park and ride' routes, with NJT buses taking people from Secaucus Junction to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, from the Hamilton rail station to Newark Penn's PATH station, and from the Woodbridge Mall to the Harrison PATH station. Private contractor Academy Bus will also operate a park-and-ride from the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel to the Port Authority Bus Terminal — but Academy will not be accepting NJ Transit tickets. Bus service will be increased on a series of regular New York-bound routes, and NJ Transit rail tickets to or from New York, Newark or Hoboken will be cross-honored on NJ Transit buses and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. It's unclear. NJ Transit rail strikes are a rarity. An NJ Transit rail dispute seemed headed for a strike back in 2016, but eleventh-hour negotiations averted a work stoppage. The Garden State's engineers last hit the picket lines in 1983, when they struck for 34 days. _____
Time Out
16-05-2025
- Business
- Time Out
When will the NJ Transit strike end?
Your morning commute just became a game of transit roulette. As of Friday, May 16, NJ Transit engineers have officially gone on strike, per The New York Times, halting all rail service on the country's third-largest commuter system, including Metro-North's west-of-Hudson lines. If you were hoping for a last-minute save, sorry: union leaders and NJ Transit brass failed to ink a deal before the deadline. When was the last time NJ Transit went on strike? That would be 1983, the year NJ Transit was born. Engineers picketed for 34 days back then. This current strike follows the rejection of a tentative contract by 87-percent of the union's voting members. Negotiators had been at the table late Thursday night but walked away, depending on who you ask, just before a deal could be struck. Talks are expected to resume Sunday, May 18, with both sides still publicly claiming a resolution is 'achievable.' What will the NJ Transit strike affect? Everything. No trains are running. Zip. Zilch. Nada. NJ Transit has about 172,000 daily rail riders and 350,000 total system riders. Without rail service, buses, light rail, PATH, ferries and rideshare apps are shouldering the chaos. Fans heading to MetLife Stadium for concerts from Shakira and Beyoncé may find themselves gridlocked—or stuck with sky-high Lyft fares. Meanwhile, daily commuters are being told to work from home unless absolutely necessary. NJ Transit strike dates The strike began at 12:01am on Friday, May 16. There's no official end date, but NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) say they're open to continued negotiations. Sunday's talks may determine whether this mess drags into the following week. NJ Transit travel disruptions The strike suspended all NJ Transit rail services, including Metro-North's Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines west of the Hudson. To ease the blow, NJ Transit is offering limited Park-and-Ride shuttle service from Secaucus Junction, Hamilton Rail Station, Woodbridge Center Mall and the PNC Bank Arts Center—though these only operate on weekdays during peak hours. Rail tickets are being cross-honored on NJ Transit-operated buses and light rail, but they won't be accepted on Amtrak, PATH, ferries or private bus lines. Some bus routes near train lines will see added capacity, but officials warn the patchwork plan can only accommodate about 20-percent of normal rail ridership. Expect bus overcrowding, packed light rail cars and heavier-than-usual traffic, especially during the morning and evening rush. Unless something gives this weekend, it's going to be a long ride—without the train.
