NJ TRANSIT Continues Record-Setting Efforts to Replenish Engineer Roster

KEARNY – Governor Phil Murphy and NJ TRANSIT President and CEO Kevin Corbett today recognized NJ TRANSIT’s latest locomotive engineer training class for completing their formal training. The class of seven trainees will be graduating in the upcoming weeks after they complete the final requirements and certifications necessary to become locomotive engineers with NJ TRANSIT.

“New Jersey’s future relies on a safe, properly staffed NJ TRANSIT,” said Governor Murphy. “The trainees here today are the critical pieces we need to get NJ TRANSIT working for commuters, our communities, and our state’s economy. I applaud each trainee and congratulate them on a new career that will help us restore NJ TRANSIT as the nation’s most efficient, effective, and safest mass transit system.”

“We are proud of the accomplishments of this class of locomotive engineers,” said Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “Throughout their training program they have demonstrated a commitment to serving NJ TRANSIT’s customers. Our efforts to maintain and upgrade our trains are meaningless without the availability of qualified individuals to operate them, and each new engineer will have a meaningful impact on NJ TRANSIT’s ability to serve the public.”

“I’d like to congratulate the locomotive engineer trainees on their success and wish them all the best during these final few weeks,” said NJ TRANSIT President and CEO Kevin Corbett. “These engineers – along with six other graduating classes between 2019 and 2020 – will be key members of the NJ TRANSIT team, helping us make delays due to engineer availability a thing of the past."

The completion of this class in mid to late November will help fulfill the agency’s continued commitment to hiring and training more locomotive engineers. This graduating class will bring the total number of new engineers this year to 19. Two additional engineer trainee classes are set to graduate in the next three months. 

This is the second class of trainees this year to complete the 24 weeks of formal classroom instruction and pass extensive testing, including a final exam of nearly 800 questions. The soon-to-be graduates are near the end of the final stage of the 78-week long program. 

NJ TRANSIT has increased the number of engineer training classes to a record-setting eight classes running concurrently. That brings the total number of engineer trainees enrolled in the program to more than one hundred. The newest class of locomotive engineer trainees began their training on October 9, 2019.