(The following story by Michael Lavitt appeared on The Times website on August 24. Bob Daniels is Legislative Representative of BLET Division 373 in Trenton, N.J., and his son Wayne belongs to the same Division.)
TRENTON, N.J. — With thousands of employees and an operating budget of more than $1 billion, you might not think of NJ Transit as a family business.
But that’s exactly what it is for people such as Sam and Kim Zoda of Hamilton and Bob and Wayne Daniels, who live in Hammonton.
They represent just two of the countless families in which children have followed their parents into the business. And the number is truly countless; NJ Transit says it doesn’t keep track of how many families have more than one person on the payroll.
Children of railroaders understand the culture in a way that others wouldn’t. “Actually, hiring families is a benefit to everyone,” said Bob Daniels, a third-generation train engineer whose son, Wayne, followed in his footsteps. “They know when they go in that weekends and holidays are out.” Choice hours come with seniority.
Daniels recalls that when his son was 8, the boy questioned why his 12-year-old sister could stay up later. “Because she’s got seniority,” the father said. That ended the debate.
“I don’t remember it too well,” said Wayne Daniels, 29. “But I’m sure he’s right.”
“I remember being a little kid and going into New York with him,” said Kim Zoda of her father. Sam Zoda said Kim would walk through the aisles with him and collect tickets when she was 5.
Kim Zoda joined NJ Transit almost 10 years ago and now works as a conductor, mostly on the Northeast Corridor. “When there was something I didn’t understand, he knew and he explained it to me,” she said.
In recent years, the tables were turned as Kim Zoda worked as a conductor and her dad as an assistant conductor. “We worked together a few times,” she said. “I was kind of like his boss on the train.”
Sam Zoda, who retired Aug. 3 after 41 years as a conductor and crew member first with the Pennsylvania Railroad and later with Conrail and then NJ Transit, said family members see the good and bad aspects of working on a railroad.
His first 21 years were spent as a freight-train conductor, an experience that his daughter didn’t have. That was a solitary job without the daily exposure to passengers or even much contact with co-workers, since they didn’t have two-way radios or cellular phones.
Sam Zoda says he’s gotten to know many of his passengers well during his 20 years in passenger service. He remembers one young woman from Mercer County who started working in Newark and shared her concerns about being laid off. “Now I bet you wish you would get laid off,” he told her shortly before his retirement. They both laughed.
Both Zodas are excellent conductors, said Bob Daniels, examples of how a family tradition is beneficial to NJ Transit’s business. They know the rules of the road, are at the engineer’s side when a problem arises and can be depended upon.
Although understanding seniority, the process of bidding for jobs or routes and some of the other nuances of working on a railroad help, people don’t get hired due to nepotism. “You can’t get your kid hired,” the elder Daniels said. “The kid has to go through the testing and everything else. All you can do is guide them through the process.”
But son Wayne says the benefit of having a mentor in the family shouldn’t be underestimated. “I had someone who’d been through it,” he said.
And while the father says a son or daughter has to get through the standardized test and the interview process on his or her own merits, the son says he believes that family history had to help on the interview. Still, Wayne agreed that it was up to him to make a good impression in the interview.
They’ve also taken steps to pass on knowledge to newcomers who may not have a family railroad legacy. Through the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Bob Daniels developed a mentoring program when his son was completing training. Wayne Daniels and a colleague now carry on that effort, sharing experiences and materials with the newcomers.