NYC NOW - Midday News: Thousands Stranded by NJ Transit Rail Strike, and Mets and Yankees Face Off in Bronx

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

NJ Transit railroad engineers and trainmen are on strike, leaving thousands of commuters scrambling to find other ways to get to work and school. We get the latest on the impasse and what's at stake. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Mets will square off in the Bronx starting Friday. Both teams are in first place, turning this year’s Subway Series into a high-stakes showdown.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, May 16th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. NJ Transit Railroad Engineers are on strike. Thousands of commuters have had to figure out how to get where they're going today. The Path Train and NJ Transit bus service are filling some gaps, but not for preschool teacher Monica Williams. She commutes to Edison from her home in Newark this morning. she said no buses would take her near her school.

Now there's a lot of people who won't make it to work today, and rent and everything else is already high. So now we're cut back on hours and things like that. So hopefully they figure it out, and we'll be back on the road Monday or tomorrow. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Trayman are calling for a raise at NJ. Transit says it cannot afford the two-sides plan of return to talks on Sunday.

A lot of attention on the Knicks and Liberty this weekend. Baseball fans, we're talking about the Subway series beginning to night with both the Yankees and Mets in first place. Kaphitha Davidson grew up a Yankees fan and now hosts the Sportly podcast. She says she remembers when the Mets and Yanks faced each other in a Subway World Series. And the city is just different when both teams are playing extraordinarily well. And that's the case right now. Tim Ryder is a Mets fan and hosts of the Simply Amazing podcast.

He says the so-called bleacher creatures at Yankee Stadium are notorious for getting a little rowdy in high-stakes games. Not just a battle on the field, there's a battle in the stands. If both teams are good, it should really be an extremely well-played and electric weekend. It really should.

Former Yankee Juan Soto is making his return to Yankee Stadium as a Met. Game wins tonight at 7 in the Bronx. Clouds in 69 at game time and maybe some showers during the game. In the city right now, 70 with some rain with a chance for more afternoon showers.

Stay tuned for more after the break. New Jersey transit workers are on strike after negotiations fell apart late last night. It's the first major transit strike in the Garden State in more than 40 years. Deputy N.C's Ramsey-C-Col-Kulife joins us now to talk us through and walk us through what this means. Ramsey, what happened late last night? So the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, those are about, they represent more than 450 commuter line operators in New Jersey Transit. they went on strike at 12.1 a.m. That's after a deal fell apart between New Jersey Transit President Chris Killory and the governor of Phil Murphy.

What are the disagreements between the Locomotive Engineers Union and NJ Transit? Well, Murphy and Kaluri, they made an announcement saying that they were very close to a deal, but ultimately there was a deadlock overpay how much they want to pay them. They say they want to keep the transit agency fiscally responsible, and that the decision, the price that they were offering and that the union wanted would not get them there, that it would cost the agency too much. So just like in any major union strike

or negotiation between an employer and a public union, it's overpay. They think that they deserve more. So what does this mean now for commuters in New Jersey and for those in northern New York west of the Hudson, like in Rockland, Right. So, you know, luckily Fridays are less busy of a commute day since the pandemic. We might not feel the bleeding the first day. But this strike shuts down commuter rail service entirely. So think about all the Jersey residents, maybe this weekend, who want to take a day trip into the city. Think about the metro north riders west of the Hudson, those two lines that are operated by New Jersey Transit. That won't happen. Like New Jersey Transit warned, commuters who can work from home, who have hybrid. jobs. They're encouraging them to stay home because our nurses, people who have essential jobs who

need to be there, they're going to be having the buses, the expanded shuttle service. Those groups are going to have to just take those alternative routes. And that's because they're simply just going to be increased demand. They don't want people to crowd the only existing, you know, path trains, Amtrak bus services. It's going to be pretty busy. So we know that NJ Transit was preparing for this and had been telling people for days now about to plan for alternate ways to get there. So have they really laid out as best we can tell? I know it's early. Have they really laid out this plan?

Are those plans, alternate plans, really working? Yeah. So, you know, at this point, I don't know how they're working. It's just been a few hours. But what I can say is they've created a contingency plan that has been in preparations publicly for a couple weeks now. What we know is that there are four parking rides along the Garden State that will have shuttle service. Again, there's that notice if you can stay at home. They're encouraging you to stay at home.

For Metro North riders, there's going to be ferry and bus service to get across the Hudson and to cross-honor tickets to the Harlem and Hudson lines. Those are the current plans that are in place to see how effective they are. We're just going to have to wait and find out. Now, Ram's, I'm going to ask a question here, which everybody is thinking. of this morning. Do we have any idea how long this could last? So I haven't spoken to the union this morning, but what I can say is we don't really have information at this time and how long it's going to last. We do know that New Jersey Transit and the BLET are meeting on Sunday with

national mediators to talk about the current state. The strike is now. Exactly. So it could last last a few days so far. The last time New Jersey transit strike workers, they went on strike, was in 1983. And that strike lasted a month before a deal was reached around again, improved wages. I remember something interesting when I was reporting on this. The New York Times, a clip from 1983 noted that commuter rail cars that were found in the yards after the strike ended were filled with old newspapers and those newspapers were dated to the night before the strike. So really shows how long that that had lasted for. And Ramsey, do we have any idea what union members are doing today?

Yes, so the BLAT members are going to hit the picket line that includes at New York's Penn Station, includes Newark Penn, which is right across the street from New Jersey Transit's headquarters. They're going to be letting people know that, hey, if you feel the pain, this is because New Jersey Transit doesn't want to pay us. I think Penn Station is quite a notable place to pick it. If you think about it, it's where Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and MTA services meet. And the reason why they might be doing that is the union has argued that their salaries don't match that of other major transit agencies, that they feel they should be compensated equally for that for the same positions. But again, New Jersey Transit argues, why would we pay our New Jersey transit operators the salaries of people in New York? So that's what's going to happen today.

Our guest has been WNMIC's Ramsey's Ramsey. Great job, Ramsey. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a date for the latest news headlines

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