(The following story by Jim Walsh appeared on the Courier-Post website on January 16.)
CHERRY HILL, N.J. — NJ Transit officials today are to disclose plans to help the state’s rail riders cope with a possible Amtrak strike.But some of the state agency’s passengers on Wednesday said they’d prefer to avoid a walkout by the Jan. 30 deadline. A strike would affect NJ Transit service on Amtrak rails across the state, including the Atlantic City Line and the Northeast Corridor Line from Trenton to New York City.
“That could be a problem for me,” said Aminah Craig of Lindenwold, who commutes to her job in Cherry Hill via the Atlantic City Line.
“I wouldn’t want to drive,” added Lorraine Spivey of Newtonville, Atlantic County, who takes the train each work day between Hammonton and Cherry Hill. She estimates her 35-minute ride on the rails would translate to 90 minutes on area roads.
Richard Sarles, NJ Transit’s executive director, is expected to discuss the strike’s possible impact and his agency’s preparations at a meeting in Atlantic City this morning.
About 10,000 Amtrak employees, represented by nine unions, are working under terms of a contract that expired at year-end 1999. After years of unsuccessful mediation, a presidential emergency board last month issued a report that backed the unions.
Amtrak workers have never gone on strike in the carrier’s 36-year history. A walkout still could be averted through a last-minute deal or intervention by Congress.
About 71,000 people ride Amtrak trains each day.
But a strike also would affect hundreds of thousands of people who ride commuter trains, particularly in the Northeast, because those lines often depend on Amtrak workers or infrastructure.
Just over half of NJ Transit’s 740 weekday trains travel for all or part of their routes on tracks owned by Amtrak. Those tracks would be off-limits during a strike.
The Northeast Corridor Line, used by some South Jersey commuters to reach jobs in Manhattan, runs entirely on Amtrak rails. Amtrak also handles dispatching at Penn Station in New York, the line’s last stop.
NJ Transit trains also use Amtrak rails on the western end of the Atlantic City-Philadelphia route.
At NJ Transit’s Cherry Hill station off Route 70 behind the Garden State Pavilion shopping center, commuters on Wednesday afternoon expressed concern over a possible work stoppage.
“I like the train,” said Harryce Baker, a substitute teacher from Cherry Hill who regularly rides the Atlantic City Line. “It’s very comfortable.”
Her boyfriend, Will Clark of Atlantic City, noted buses could be pressed into service during a strike, but that they couldn’t match a train’s speed.
“The train is faster,” observed Clark, a musician. “Everything just flies by.”
Diane Devenney, a Lindenwold resident who commutes to Cherry Hill, echoed that view.
“It’s 10 minutes by train to Lindenwold,” she said. “I don’t think a bus can do that.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)