NJ Transit Crew Shortages

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Just checked the updates.

For today's commute, the planned and announced changes were to add five trains and cancel three.

They have now cancelled an additional three.

So the "extra" getaway service is essentially one train less than there would have normally been.
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But maybe they have cancelled fewer trains than they were intending to cancel, so it's actually a net improvement?
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Here come 7 more engineers. Only 54 more to go!!

https://www.nj.com/traffic/2019/10/...ut-are-they-enough-to-run-all-the-trains.html


Seven locomotive engineers graduated NJ Transit training classes Wednesday, helping to deliver on the promise of adding a total of 25 to fill the depleted ranks of train operators in New Jersey.

But will they be enough to reduce the number of canceled trains plaguing the agency, and Jersey commuters? Will there be enough new engineers to make up for retirees and those needed to fill the Raritan Valley Line’s off-peak service to New York?

<snip>

The agency’s goal is to have “about three dozen” new engineers up and running before next summer, Murphy said. There will be six other graduating classes between 2019 and 2020, in addition to the class of seven engineers who just moved on, he said. All told, NJ Transit officials say there are 100 engineers in training.

NJ Transit has approximately 343 active engineers, Snyder said. Corbett said he’d like to see that number at 400.

“There will be some attrition (between the number who take and graduate from training),” Murphy said. “We are slowly, but surely, building that bench back up.”
 
I hope they are training conductors, dispatchers and track personnel as well.

NJ Transit marks record locomotive engineer recruits
https://www.progressiverailroading....ks-record-locomotive-engineer-recruits--59572

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy last week recognized New Jersey Transit for marking a record number of locomotive engineer training classes running concurrently.

Between 2019 and 2020, seven classes of locomotive engineers will graduate from the NJ Transit’s 78-week training program — the same number of classes that graduated in the previous five years combined, NJ Transit officials said in press release from Murphy’s office.
 
I hope they are training conductors, dispatchers and track personnel as well.

According to the attached article, it looks like they are going for engineers, bus operators, and conductors. However, they are getting assistant conductors to train to be engineers, so that doesn't sound like they are trying for a huge increase in conductors. I just noticed that the article is from last January, not this one, so things might have changed a bit since then.

NJ TRANSIT Recruits Hundreds of Train Engineers and Bus Operators
January 17, 2019, 12:24 pm | in
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NJ TRANSIT Recruits Hundreds of Train Engineers and Bus Operators
Governor Murphy Addresses Employees Training to be the Future of NJ TRANSIT
NEWARK — Governor Phil Murphy today met with NJ TRANSIT employees training to become new train conductors, locomotive engineers, and bus operators at the Ferry St. training facility in Newark.

“Replenishing NJ TRANSIT’s workforce is a critical component of improving the customer experience for the nearly one million New Jerseyans who rely on NJ TRANSIT every day,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “Investing in hundreds of newly trained locomotive engineers and bus operators represent our commitment to improving safety, service, and reliability for New Jersey commuters and will put NJ TRANSIT on a positive path moving forward.”

“Having the proper staff to operate the trains and buses is critical to delivering the services that customers expect and deserve,” said New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “This was an area we identified early in this Administration and began taking immediate steps to rectify.”

“The greatest strength of NJ TRANSIT is our extraordinary workforce,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Kevin Corbett. “By filling these critical positions, we continue moving NJ TRANSIT back to its status of national prominence with a keen focus on an improved customer experience.”

In 2018, NJ TRANSIT launched a major marketing and recruitment effort to fill critical positions in the agency, particularly locomotive engineers and bus operators. More than 4,000 applications were received for locomotive engineering positions with 102 trainees hired. For the first time in their history, NJ TRANSIT has six locomotive training classes running concurrently. Five of those classes began in 2018 and one began in 2017.

In further support of this workforce replenishment effort, NJ TRANSIT debuted its new accelerated locomotive engineer training class in October 2018 with 14 assistant conductors learning to become engineers. The accelerated program leverages the existing railroad knowledge that the assistant conductors have to reduce their training time from 20 months to approximately 12 months. The program fulfills the agency’s commitment to streamlining the locomotive engineer training process, while still ensuring compliance with Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requirements.

Throughout 2018, NJ TRANSIT held open houses to test bus operator candidates on the spot and make tentative offers.  As an incentive, a $6,000 sign-on bonus was offered to any applicant already possessing a CDL A or B license with a passenger endorsement and air brakes. NJ TRANSIT hired 386 new bus operators after more than 8,000 applicants expressed interest.
 
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