What NJ transit wage deal with union means for coming fare increase

🚉 NJ Transit engineers returned to work on Tuesday

🚉 Details of their agreement reached Sunday have not been disclosed

🚉 Will service be cut or fares increased to cover the costs of the deal?

NJ Transit trains rumbled back to life on Tuesday after a contract agreement was reached with striking engineers, but details of the deal have not been made public.

Will there be a fare increase?

NJ Transit CEO and President Kris Kolluri had said it was important "to reach a deal that didn’t require a significant fare increase." After the agreement was reached Sunday, Gov. Phil Murphy said it did not include "the burden of fare increases."

On Tuesday,  Kolluri told New Jersey 101.5 that the ideal does not result in any fare increase or service cuts. A 3% fare increase was already scheduled to take effect on July 1.

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What's in the contract?

BLET spokesman James Horwitz said that lawyers from both sides are working out the deal's final language. A vote will be taken electronically and an announcement made before NJ Transit's board votes on June 11.

“While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month and beyond where we were when NJ Transit’s managers walked away from the table Thursday evening,” BLET’s General Chairman Tom Haas said in written a statement.

“We also were able to show management ways to boost engineers’ wages that will help NJT with retention and recruitment, without causing any significant budget issue or requiring a fare increase.”

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