It seems like a dream job. The opportunity to earn six figures, have a good union job with benefits and get some fresh air.

Yet NJ Transit is struggling to hire locomotive engineers, as employees leave for more lucrative, better paying positions at other commuter railroads and others retire.

The shortage of engineers has been blamed for recent rashes of canceled trains because the ranks are too thin to cover for an unexcused absence or when engineers are assigned to other duties.

To become an engineer, candidates must pass a rigorous 20-month training course, where at least half the candidates drop out mid-way.

NJ Transit pays a locomotive engineer trainee $53,000. Base pay for an engineer ranges from $67,184 to $76,814, depending on the amount of hours they work, said Nancy Snyder, an agency spokeswoman. But overtime and other payouts can push total pay deep into the six-figure range, according to NJ Transit salary records. Last year, roughly 260 engineers out of a total of 335 made more than $100,000, according to NJ Transit salary records for 2017.

Of NJ Transit's top 20 earners who made over $200,000 in 2017, the list includes four engineers, nine police officers, four conductors and a power systems operator. The highest paid engineer took home a total salary of $227,515, according to calendar year 2017 salary records obtained through an Open Public Records Request.

Improving employee hiring and keeping them is of five key recommendations from a $1.3 million audit of NJ Transit released Tuesday. Officials said the agency has been working on hiring before the audit was released.

NJ Transit officials said there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

NJ Transit currently is conducting four engineer training courses, where a year ago, they had one class, said Kevin Corbett, executive director. The first class is expected to graduate in May, he said.

The downside is training engineers takes 20 months to teach them railroad rules and to certify them to operate a train on NJ Transit's various rail lines. The agency is trying to change that.

"We are working with a consultant to reduce the 20-month training period," Corbett said.

NJ Transit also is offering a bonus to experienced conductors to train to become an engineer, which also cuts eight months out of the training time because conductors already know railroad operating rules, he said.

"We have 20 conductors that have signed up," Corbett said. "They can be operating by next summer."

NJ Transit also is working with state and community colleges through the Department of Higher Education to offer training courses that would give the needed class room time to would-be engineers and shorten the training process.

About half of the applicants dropped-out midway through the course in the past, officials said.

Why so many drop-outs? One reason is the non-traditional work hours. Engineers work all hours and because new engineers are low on the seniority list, they're not going to get the best assignments. That means working late nights, weekends and holidays, officials said. That can turn-off some trainees.

Another hurdle to be cleared is to offer salaries to be competitive with neighboring commuter railroads which have poached experienced engineers from NJ Transit with the lure of higher pay, officials said. That topic will be addressed when new union contracts are negotiated next year, officials said.

Until last month, New Jersey residency requirements complicated hiring. Potential engineers who live in Pennsylvania or New York state, where NJ Transit has train yards, have had to apply for a waiver from the requirement to live in New Jersey.

In August, Gov. Phil Murphy called on the state Employee Residency Review Committee to grant a pre-emptive exemption to the residency requirement for engineers, conductors, and train dispatchers. Track and signal maintainers and bus drivers were also included in the exemption, which was granted last month.

A bipartisan bill in the legislature would permanently lift the residency requirement for key NJ Transit employees. It is still before a committee in the state senate.

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

