New Jersey Rail Strike Ends, Service to Resume on Tuesday

New Jersey Transit trains will begin running again on Tuesday (May 20) after the agency reached a tentative deal with striking rail engineers on wage increases, ending a three-day work stoppage that had left tens of thousands of commuters to New York scrambling to find alternative transportation.

To offer the understatement of the year, this is a very good outcome," New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said at a news conference on Sunday (May 18) to announce the deal.

The statewide rail strike, the first to hit NJ Transit in more than 40 years, had begun just after midnight on Thursday. The third-largest transit system in the U.S., it provides more than 700,000 passenger trips a day on average across its train, light rail and bus lines.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents 450 NJ Transit engineers who drive the agency's commuter trains, initially said its members would return to work on Monday. But NJ Transit said in a statement that train service would not resume until Tuesday to give the agency time to inspect and prepare tracks, rail cars and other infrastructure.

NJ Transit will implement its strike contingency plan on Monday (May 19), increasing bus service and chartering private buses to ferry passengers from four satellite lots. Officials urged commuters to work from home if possible, noting that the enhanced bus service can still only accommodate a fraction of train riders.

Details of the deal were not immediately released. The agreement still requires the approval of a majority of the union's members, who rejected an earlier deal last month.