Union members will return to work on Monday.
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NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri on Saturday said the agency is working hard to reach a deal with the striking rail engineers, hoping to keep the walkout that left 350,000 commuters in the lurch from spilling into the new workweek.
But Kolluri said a deal must not impose a fiscal burden on New Jersey Transit.
"I want to be crystal clear, I've said this, the governor has said this, we want a fair deal that will not break the bank. That is our principle. We are not moving from that and I hope the union understands that is where we are and that is where we will be," Kolluri said during a news conference Saturday morning.
He continued: "There's only three places money comes from to run NJ Transit: Fare payers who pay for their fares to get on their trains and buses, corporate transit fee or general taxes that the residents of New Jersey pay. That's it. This is not a private company where there is profits. We need to make sure we live within our means."
New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike early Friday in a dispute over wages, halting all train service.
Engineers walk the picket line as commuters devise alternate routes
The striking Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen spoke with ABC News, saying that fair pay is a priority, and that their compensation is lagging other systems like the LIRR and Amtrak, which also use Pennsylvania Station.
"Our members are demanding fair pay so our members on New Jersey Transit make $10 less an hour than comparable railroads on Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak in the region, and so what they've been seeking for the last six years is just parity with the locomotive engineers that they go to work beside of every day, they just work for a different rail," said Mark Wallace, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said.
Wallace said rail engineers have long been sounding the alarm to get higher salaries.
"That's why I reached out to him (Kolluri) last night in an effort to get negotiations going early so that we don't have to wait till Sunday. If we can get this done before the commuter week starts, then we're going to take care of the passengers that we serve," he added.
Thomas Haas, the general chairman for the union, said his fellow workers want to be working, but the walkout is a matter of principle.
"The last thing we wanted was to be out here striking. We want to be running the trains. We want to be at work," Haas told Eyewitness News. "I mean, this is a hardship for us as well. We're not getting paid."
Koulluri doubled down on the agency's position, noting that it will not go down a path that leads to a significant funding crisis.
"We will not be SEPTA. We will not be any of those transit agencies that are in a death spiral financially because of decisions that are bad that were made several years ago," he said.
At a news conference on Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy acknowledged that families and commuters across New Jersey are off to a difficult start amid the state's first rail strike since 1983.
They say they have been working around the clock for months to avoid the strike and are now rearranging the state's entire transportation system to help commuters.
Gov. Murphy, NJ Transit CEO give update on rail strike
"At this moment, our single highest priority, in addition to making the system work, just as it has been for the past several months, is reaching a fair and affordable deal as soon as humanly possible," Murphy said.
Murphy reiterated that the state and NJ Transit are trying to come to a deal that provides engineers their hard-earned raises without blowing up the NJ Transit budget and without raising the fare for riders.
Murphy said a small number of NJ Transit workers are shutting down the entire system.
"It is, frankly, a mess of their own making, and it is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on NJ Transit," he said.
NJ Transit CEO tells Eyewitness News a deal is reachable
Haas told ABC News on Friday that "it felt like" they were close to reaching a deal, but the two were "still several dollars apart and New Jersey Transit was unable to bridge that gap."
"We are ready, willing and able to talk at any time," Haas said. "Ultimately, it was New Jersey Transit that decided to walk away, which is unfortunate because we don't want to be in this situation."
Union representative speaks out about Governor Murphy's press conference
On Thursday, both sides met again for eleventh-hour negotiations to avert the strike, in addition to a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday with the National Mediation Board, but no resolution was reached.
Picket lines began at locations across the system at 4 a.m. Friday at NJ Transit headquarters, Penn Station-New York, and in Atlantic City.
NJ Transit is the nation's third-largest transit system, operating buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips.
The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City's Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other.
NJ Transit has strongly encouraged employers to allow their employees to work from home if possible, and to limit travel to essential purposes only.
Murphy said that Friday is the best day, out of all weekdays, for a rail strike to start. He says NJ Transit will now study what worked and what didn't on Friday, and adjust before busier commutes on Monday and next week, if the strike continues.
The agency had announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but warned riders that the buses would only add "very limited" capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday. The agency also will contract with private carriers to operate bus service from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods.
However, the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers - only about 20% of the usual rail customers - so it urged people who could work from home to do so if there was a strike.
Understanding the impacts of the NJ Transit strike
Both Murphy and Kolluri went out to MetLife Stadium on Thursday night to see how things went for the Shakira concert. The incoming and outgoing traffic went well, and officials are hoping for a similar experience for tonight's Shakira concert, especially with Pitbull with her tonight.
With Beyonce coming to town next week for five days, officials are hoping to learn things from the Shakira concerts to prepare for the next set of concerts.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city is monitoring the situation, and there will be shuttles in place to help mitigate crowds.
Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that wants to see its members earn wages comparable to other passenger railroads in the area. The union says its members earn an average salary of $113,000 a year and says an agreement could be reached if Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of $170,000.
NJ Transit leadership, though, disputes the union's data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.
Kolluri and Murphy said Thursday night that the problem isn't so much whether both sides can agree to a wage increase, but whether they can do so under terms that wouldn't then trigger other unions to demand similar increases and create a financially unfeasible situation for NJ Transit.
Congress has the power to intervene and block the strike and force the union to accept a deal, but lawmakers have not shown a willingness to do that this time like they did in 2022 to prevent a national freight railroad strike.
The union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more of its members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 450 today.
Alternate commuter options during the NJ Transit rail strike
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Some information from ABC News and the Associated Press
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