Crew shortages forced NJ Transit to cancel 64 trains this month and agency officials plan to meet with an engineers union on Friday to talk about preventing future problems when rail schedules change in September.

Of the 112 total trains canceled between July 1 and July 17, only 40 were not blamed on crew shortages, Steven Santoro, NJ Transit's Executive Director, said at a hearing held by the Joint Legislative oversight committee in Trenton on Wednesday.

The most cancelations due to crew shortages were 26 trains on Sunday and 14 on Monday, Santoro said. One train was canceled Tuesday and no trains were canceled due to crew shortages on Wednesday, he said.

Under a union contract, engineers have 48-hours to accept a new assignment. Asked if he felt engineers were using that time to voice displeasure with a special summer schedule during Amtrak track work at Penn Station New York, Santoro told lawmakers "you'll have to ask the union on that."



But Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers officials said they warned NJ Transit over two years ago that current engineer staffing levels were inadequate. Penn Station track work added 8-10 new work assignments and the current staff of locomotive engineers are "simply spread too thin to keep up with the added work," said James P. Brown, general chairman.

Union officials have denied that engineers were doing that and cited short staffing due to workers taking other jobs, in addition to employees on vacation, out sick or who had retired as reason for the shortages.

Santoro stopped short of saying the agency was short staffed. In July, NJ Transit had enough engineers to cover train assignments and compensate for engineers who were on vacation, out sick or on military leave, but not for additional absences, he said.

"We have a headcount that is adequate and sometimes below adequate," he said. "It's not a budget issue, it's not a head count issue, we need to stay ahead of the curve on (engineer) retirements."

BLE officials suggested NJ Transit combine some eight-hour work assignments into 10 or 11-hour assignments, to allowing it to run more trains with its current workforce of engineers.

NJ Transit is budgeted for 383 engineer positions, which includes substitute engineers. Union officials said at least 25 positions are vacant.

"We probably need to be a little more aggressive with (engineer) retention," Santoro said. It takes roughly two years to train an engineer and each class of trainees has a 67 percent failure rate.

NJ Transit and BLE officials are scheduled to meet on Friday about cancelations and finding away to relax the 48-hour rule during emergencies such as the ongoing Amtrak track project at Penn Station, Santoro said. That work reduced rail service to New York by 25 percent between July 10 and Sept. 1.

Engineers who failed to come to work for a good reason could face disciplinary action, said Robert Lavell, NJ Transit rail operations director.

State Senator Joseph Kyrillos, R-Monmouth, expressed anger on behalf of commuters about the cancellations.

"We're really talking about people not showing up to work and screwing the people using NJ Transit," Kyrillos said. "I'm saying it on behalf of people sitting in hot stations, not knowing their trains has been canceled. It's arrogant."

Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Morris, said NJ Transit was blaming the unions for "many years of neglect and mismanagement."

Subpoenas will be served on NJ Transit for planning documents about the Amtrak track work summer service, and communications between the agency and governors office, in addition to information about political patronage hires at the agency McKeon said.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

