NJ TRANSIT Facing Possible Shortage Of Engineers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- One of the area's major transportation agencies is facing a potential shortage of engineers.
Since March, NJ TRANSIT has been losing one engineer a month to Metro-North Railroad.
As WCBS 880's Kelly Waldron reported, while Metro-North has hired roughly 100 engineers since the start of 2015, NJ TRANSIT has only hired four.
Assemblyman John McKeon (D-27th) says he can understand why engineers would leave for a better work environment, and says mismanagement is to blame.
"We've found in our investigations from top to bottom there's real problems," he told WCBS 880. "Part of it has been underfunding, or at least not managing dollars in the right way."
The pay scale could be a problem as well. NJ TRANSIT engineers typically early $32 an hour, while their counterparts at Metro-North take in $46 an hour.