As a strike deadline approaches for NJ Transit engineers, Metro-North Railroad is beefing up service on the east side of the Hudson River to give passengers additional travel options.
Metro-North’s two West-of-Hudson lines — the Port Jervis and Pascack Valley routes — are operated by NJ Transit crews in NJ Transit trains.
As previously reported, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union that represents NJ Transit engineers — the operators who drive the trains — overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract earlier this month, setting a May 16 strike deadline.
Should NJ Transit engineers walk off the job, service on Metro-North’s two western lines will halt.
“This means potential severe impacts for our customers on the Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines,” Metro-North President Justin Vonashek said Wednesday.
In anticipation of the potential labor action, Vonashek said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority-operated trains on the eastern Hudson line will run with additional cars. All Port Jervis and Pascack Valley line tickets will be cross-honored on the Hudson and Harlem lines, as will any West-of-Hudson parking passes at the Cortland, Beacon, New Hamburg, Poughkeepsie and North White Plains stations.
West-of-Hudson ticket holders will also be eligible for free bus and ferry connections across the Hudson River.
NJ Transit’s unionized engineers say they’ve been without a raise since 2019, and earn less than their peers — including those MTA engineers on the east side of the Hudson.
At a Wednesday press conference, NJ Transit President Kris Kolluri said he wasn’t looking for a strike, but did not seem confident one could be avoided.
“None of the positions I’ve heard thus far from the unions are neither reasoned nor fair,” Kolluri said.
