Gov. Murphy visits NJ Transit training facility
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has made improving New Jersey Transit a priority of his administration. He visited the agency's Ferry St. training facility in Newark on Jan. 17 to met with NJ Transit employees training to become new train conductors, locomotive engineers and bus operators.
“Replenishing NJ Transit's workforce is a critical component of improving the customer experience for the nearly one million New Jerseyans who rely on NJ Transit every day,” said Gov. Murphy. “Investing in hundreds of newly trained locomotive engineers and bus operators represent our commitment to improving safety, service and reliability for New Jersey commuters and will put NJ Transit on a positive path moving forward.”
In 2018, NJ Transit launched a major marketing and recruitment effort to fill critical positions in the agency, particularly locomotive engineers and bus operators. More than 4,000 applications were received for locomotive engineering positions with 102 trainees hired. For the first time in its history, NJ Transit has six locomotive training classes running concurrently. Five of those classes began in 2018 and one began in 2017.
In further support of this workforce replenishment effort, NJ Transit debuted its new accelerated locomotive engineer training class in October 2018 with 14 assistant conductors learning to become engineers. The accelerated program leverages the existing railroad knowledge that the assistant conductors have to reduce their training time from 20 months to approximately 12 months. The program fulfills the agency’s commitment to streamlining the locomotive engineer training process, while still ensuring compliance with Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requirements.
“The greatest strength of NJ Transit is our extraordinary workforce,” said NJ Transit Executive Director Kevin Corbett. “By filling these critical positions, we continue moving NJ Transit back to its status of national prominence with a keen focus on an improved customer experience.”
Throughout 2018, NJ Transit held open houses to test bus operator candidates on the spot and make tentative offers. As an incentive, a $6,000 sign-on bonus was offered to any applicant already possessing a CDL A or B license with a passenger endorsement and air brakes. NJ Transit hired 386 new bus operators after more than 8,000 applicants expressed interest.
Mischa Wanek-Libman | Group Editorial Director
Mischa Wanek-Libman is director of communications with Transdev North America. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the transportation industry covering construction projects, engineering challenges, transit and rail operations and best practices.
Wanek-Libman has held top editorial positions at freight rail and public transportation business-to-business publications including as editor-in-chief and editorial director of Mass Transit from 2018-2024. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.
She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and served 14 years as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.
She is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.
