What’s the reason behind increase in cancelled NJ Transit trains?

🚆Dozens of NJ Transit trains have been canceled due to 'engineer shortages'

🚆NJ Transit says there are plenty of engineers

🚆Raises for engineers take effect Thursday

NJ Transit president and CEO Kris Kollluri is confident  that there will be less engineers calling out as their new contract takes affect but the head of their union disagrees.

An analysis of NJ Transit notifications by the Asbury Park Press shows that a lack of available crew or engineers was the leading reason given for a cancelled train in August. Between January and July 2025, the Press analysis shows the reason was used 128 times in August alone.

In all of 2023, the reason was used just once.

"When I found out that in August that 385 engineers had requested unplanned absences, compared to 342 last August, I thought that was blatantly troubling. So we did what every good organization should, which is we reached out to the union, and to their credit, they sent a notice out to all their members, informing them about their obligation to show up to work," Kolluri told Eric Scott during the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show.

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 Are there enough engineers?

Kolluri said that engineers are getting the pay raise that is part of the contract they ratified in May, which he hopes will remediate the situation. He plans to keep a close eye on it over the weekend. Kolluri said that with 418 active engineers, it's not a manpower issue to him.

"We need people who are scheduled to work to show up to work. And I've got an assurance through our rail folks that the engineers have committed to doing just that. As I said, there is no reason for friction," Kolluri said.

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Local president Thomas Haas said there has been an ongoing shortage of engineers, which he warned would eventually affect service. There is no quick solution and the engineers by law have to take time off, according to Haas.

"NJ Transit engineers are routinely working 6 or 7 days a week, and voluntarily working their days off. In fact, engineers are working so much that federal regulations which require mandatory rest periods are among the reasons NJ Transit is seeing unplanned absences, as engineers are required by law to be off work for one or two days at a time after working more than 7 days in a row," Haas said.

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Trying to improve reliability

Reliability has also been improving for NJ Transit riders. Kolluri said that NJ Transit's on time performance was 86% in 2024 versus nearly 91% this year. An upgrade is underway by Amtrak, which owns the Northeast Corridor rails, and NJ Transit is poised to upgrade its entire fleet of buses and trains. Much of the equipment has been in service since 1977, according to Kolluri.

"That means by 2031 we'll have the fully modern equipment for the first time in NJ Transit history. That's how you increase reliability," Kolluri said.

He is not happy with a recent FDU poll that gave NJ Transit a grade of B- and will "obsess about it" to bring it up to an A. But he is aware that it will not be easy and says he is well aware of rider frustrations when trains are cancelled or delayed.

"When the trains are not working because of crew availability or mechanical issues. It doesn't matter. My job is to make sure that we do everything in our power to run the system as best as we can to make the lives of our writers better," Kolluri said.

Kolluri is scheduled to head NJ Transit until the end of the Murphy admininstration in January.

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