NEWARK, N.J. — Thousands of people have applied to become locomotive engineers for NJ Transit, addressing the transit agency’s shortage of people to operate its commuter trains. But relief will be far from immediate.
NJ.com reports that more than 5,000 people have already applied to become engineers, with the deadline for applications arriving on Friday.
“We’re extremely pleased with the overwhelming response,” NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder told the news site. “The number of applicants accepted depends on a few variables, such as the graduation rate of classes currently underway, as well as the rate of attrition.”
NJ Transit says it is roughly 15 percent below the full staffing, about 400 engineers, required to operate the system. The shortage is because of retirements, a lack of training classes over the previous seven years, and the loss of employees to other agencies that offer better pay. In an effort to address the problem, the state earlier this year waived its rule requiring engineers to be New Jersey residents. [See “NJ Transit gets permission to hire out of state for engineers, other positions,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 17, 2018.]
But the training process take up to two years, so the agency will not see any immediate end to its need to cancel some trains because no engineer is available.
Tow years of training? It takes about 9 months for the average sailor to be qualified to operate a nuclear power plant. How can driving a train take 2 years?
NJ Transit needs to adopt PSH..Precision Scheduled Hiring…
Chessie System gave me six months to qualify.
The pay must be low. One of the reasons given for the shortage of engineers is people leaving for better pay elsewhere.
” a lack of traning classes over the last 7 years” Wow. Whose watch was that under? I believe the former governor owns this one. Perhaps he was so fixated on squeezing into the Republican cabinet he lost sight of his own responsibilities and obligations. Perhaps he was honing his chops to prove to the RNC he could be just as foolish to turn his back on the most pressing need of his own state and constituents. Maybe he was just dumb. We are now eight years behind replacing the Hudson Tunnels and the Hackensack Portal Bridge. We are racing time until the next hundred year storm hits. Good luck to us all, we will need it.
Just hire Certified Locomotive Engineers, is it that hard? Unless the pay is crappy,
;How about offering a signing bonus to people who are already qualified as an engineer.
Is NJ Transit offering OT to its current engineers? I can’t believe they are all turning it down if it is available.
Hopefully they will be able to get this under control now that Christie is no longer Governor.