Commuters who lost their off-peak direct trains to New York more than a year ago got good news from Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday — their NJ Transit trains are coming back.

Murphy announced the agency will restore that service on the Raritan Valley Line on Nov. 4.

But the announcement has ramifications beyond RVL riders. It could be the beginning of the end of NJ Transit’s shortage of having enough locomotive engineers on staff to operate trains.

Seven engineers are scheduled to graduate classroom training on Wednesday and will do their on-the-railroad training before they are qualified to operate trains, said Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, the state’s transportation commissioner.

The announcements came the same day 13 NJ Transit trains were canceled, primarily due to a lack of engineers, Murphy said.

Murphy said the restoration of RVL service “means the elimination for major headaches for thousands of train riders.”

“It means more time getting to where you need to go and less time waiting,” the Democratic governor said during a news conference at the Westfield train station.

RVL trains now terminate in Newark Penn Station, where riders have to run down and up stairs to transfer to New York trains on other tracks. Direct New York service was started in March 2014 after 16 years of lobbying.

Off-peak New York service was suspended on the Raritan Valley Line in September 2018, along with the Atlantic City line, to install Positive Train Control equipment for that federally mandated safety system, which must be operational by 2020. Atlantic City line service was restored in May, but Raritan Valley Line riders were still waiting for a date when their New York trains would return.

New housing is being built at stations on the Raritan Valley Line, adding more commuters, said Mayor Colleen Mahr of Fanwood.

“This governor has listened to our concerns,” Mahr said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-7th Dist., said the line is critical not only to residents that ride it but also to the state’s “growing economy.”

“This is a significant step forward for all of us,” said Malinowski, a member of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Agitated commuters and officials in Union, Somerset and Hunterdon counties, representatives of the Raritan Valley Rail Coalition, and an alliance of mayors were regulars at NJ Transit board meetings, asking when their trains would return. They organized rallies at Newark Penn Station and state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union, and state Sen. Nick Scutari, D-Union, sponsored a bill demanding return of the direct New York trains.

Kean, a member of a special legislative committee formed by state Senate President Stephen Sweeney to investigate NJ Transit — and the Republican challenging Malinowski in next year’s House elections — said more needs to be done to address NJ Transit’s problems overall.

“Securing a one-seat ride represents an important accomplishment, but there is still much more work to do to address all of the lingering challenges that plague NJ Transit,” Kean said in a statement Monday.

The engineer shortage that started affecting service in 2017 also was a factor in delaying return of off-peak RVL New York service. Officials said more dual-powered diesel locomotives also have become available, allowing the return of the five direct off-peak trains.

NJ Transit has seven engineer training classes being done concurrently. The first four classes are scheduled to graduate over the next four months, said Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit CEO, at Septembers board of directors meeting. Graduating those engineers is expected to reduce canceled trains.

The agency went on a hiring blitz in 2018. Locomotive engineers who passed screening entered a 20-month training period. Murphy blamed a perfect storm of engineers who retired, left NJ Transit for more lucrative jobs at other commuter railroads and few training classes held during former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration.

A lack of a what Murphy called a “deep enough bench” of substitute engineers to cover for employees who were sick, on vacation or took time off was blamed for train cancelations that spiked in the spring and early summer.

Cancelations were exacerbated in June due to union locomotive engineers who refused to work on relief days, their equivalent of a weekend, to protest an alleged contract violation. NJ Transit officials said they have reduced canceled trains when August 2018 numbers are compared to August 2019.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters