Sudden New Jersey Transit closing all rail services Friday night amid what officials said was a concerted effort by the system’s engineers union to call patients.
Jim Smith, a spokesman for New Jersey Transit, said engineers were sick throughout the day at nearly three times the usual weekday rate. The result was one day of cancellations across the system, the nation’s largest statewide transit agency.
Canceled rides started in the morning and worsened in the evening, disrupting commuter routes in and out of Penn Station and frustrating riders at the start of the holiday weekend.
Penn Station wasn’t crowded on a Friday evening, which is usually a light commuter day in the post-pandemic era, but commuters were caught in a sudden rush toward the stairs leading to the platform. The timetable shows a solid ranking of trains canceled at night.
Anna Rodriguez, 28, was leaving her job in Roslyn Heights, Long Island, to catch an 8 p.m. train to Paterson, NJ, when she discovered the shutdown.
“I was shocked when I went down and saw this,” she said, pointing toward the gates that separate the waiting area. “I was very tired, and now I have to think what to do.”
Her options are limited: She can get a Lyft for $110; or a bus, but don’t know where to start to find the right one; or she may cancel her plan altogether.
“I am disappointed,” she said, explaining that she had planned to stay overnight in New Jersey before traveling to Pennsylvania to see her 9-year-old son. “I don’t have many days off to see my son.”
“We were supposed to spend the weekend together and now I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she added.
Zubayda Muksinova, 68, who lives on Coney Island but comes to Linden, NJ, every Friday night to spend the weekend with her son, had to wait at Penn Station for about two hours for her son to drive to pick her up.
“We found a way through a difficult situation,” she said, sighing. “It’s not good, but what can you do?”
“But I hope this doesn’t continue,” she added, adding that she was nervous about returning to the city on Monday. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Mr. Smith said the agency was made aware on Thursday of a rumor that the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a railroad union, planned what he called “an illegal employment act. “.
Of the 15 railroad unions in New Jersey Transit, BLT was the only one that failed to reach a contractual agreement with the agency. Each of the other unions recently agreed to their contracts, which include June 13 as a paid holiday. But not for BLT workers. The holiday falls on a Sunday this year, was observed on Friday in New Jersey.
A union official did not immediately respond to phone messages or emails.
“We intend to explore all legal means to deal with this illegal and irresponsible act,” Mr. Smith said. “We will monitor the situation and we will notify customers of the resumption of service tomorrow.”
New Jersey Transit has suffered for years with meager funding, resulting in poor maintenance of its trains and frequent shortages of engineers. Last year, the agency graduated from the 17th class of engineers After a two-year training program, that brings the workforce to 385 engineers, or 390.
“Developing our fleet of locomotive engineers is an integral part of our three-year effort to turn the tide of NJ Transit, improve performance and responsiveness, and at the same restore the confidence of NJ Transit customers,” Governor Phil Murphy said in a press release. at that time.
On Friday night, rail tickets were honored by New Jersey Transit and private buses, light rail and PATH trains.
The outage also affects the Pasack and Port Jervis lines of the Metro-North Railroad, operated by New Jersey Transit, west of the Hudson River, said Sean Butler, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
