New Jersey Governor announces NJ Transit’s completion of full locomotive engineer roster
New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) has successfully restored the ranks of its locomotive engineers to a full roster.
NJ Transit’s latest Locomotive Engineer Training Class is in the final stages of their field training and will begin their final check rides in the next few weeks. With this class, NJ Transit has fulfilled its commitment to improving reliability for rail customers by adding more than 100 new locomotive engineers to its roster since New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy took office in 2018. The Murphy Administration has focused on hiring locomotive engineers and filling NJ Transit’s roster following many years of neglect and underfunding under the previous administration.
“When I took office, NJ Transit was depleted of funding, expertise and employee morale,” said Gov. Murphy. “Our administration immediately set about aggressively recruiting, training and hiring locomotive engineers for NJ Transit. After nine classes of engineers, we are finally at a full roster of engineers who will serve New Jersey commuters and provide them with the reliable service that they deserve. This is a moment that we have been working toward for years, and one that I am immensely proud of.”
“When Gov. Murphy took office, this administration made a commitment to improve customer service and the reliability of NJ Transit,” said NJDOT Commissioner and NJ Transit Board Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “The addition of more than 100 well-trained locomotive engineers to the NJ Transit team since 2018 is delivering on that promise.”
This class of nine engineer trainees completed a rigorous 78-week long program and passed extensive testing, including a final exam of more than 800 questions. Their graduation will bring the total number of new engineers that have joined NJ Transit since 2018 to 103 and brings the total active roster of engineers to 393. Since 2018 when Gov. Murphy took office, NJ Transit has graduated nine classes of locomotive engineers – more graduations than the previous five years combined.
“Three years ago, Gov. Murphy set us out on an ambitious mission to fully restore the ranks of NJ Transit’s locomotive engineers, which had been severely depleted during the previous decade,” said NJ Transit President & CEO Kevin S. Corbett. “Today marks the culmination of a herculean effort that included record-setting recruiting, training, and hiring of these critical team members. Ultimately, this translates to a better customer experience by delivering more reliable and predictable rail service for our customers.”
The next locomotive engineer training class is set to graduate in June of 2021.
