A threatened Friday deadline for a nationwide freight rail strike or worker lock out will not affect NJ Transit commuter trains, even those that travel over freight railroad tracks, officials said.

But a strike could hurt the agency in other ways, by disrupting the supply chain and preventing needed parts from arriving at NJ Transit shops to repair trains, said Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit CEO.

Those same supply chain issues could affect the availability and cost of other consumer goods shipped by rail, including gasoline, warned officials in other industries.

The possible strike involves six of the nation’s largest freight railroads over issues that have been pending since 2020. Friday is the end of a 30-day cooling off period that came after a Presidential Emergency Board issued its findings on August 16. The unions could strike or railroad management could lock out workers.

While the Emergency Board made recommendations about pay increase and health benefits, it sent two issues on work rules and schedules back to the railroads and unions for negotiations. Among those issues are attendance policies that unions say are more strict than those that apply to other private sector employees and penalize workers for taking routine personal days for things such as doctors visits.

A report by the American Association of Railroads estimates a strike would cost “at least $2 billion a day” by halting shipment that would require “467,000 additional long haul trucks a day” to make up for freight trains.

A trade group representing oil and gas refiners, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, warned that interruption of crude oil deliveries by rail could cause the price of gas and other refined products to increase.

Unlike other commuter railroads in the nation that contract with freight railroads to run their trains, NJ Transit owns most of its track and has its own employees to operate trains, Corbett said.

Amtrak owns the Northeast Corridor line, which is used by NJ Transit trains and won’t be affected by a potential strike. A section of NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley Line uses Conrail shared assets Lehigh Line to reach the Northeast Corridor line.

Conrail will have managers on duty to keep that line operational for NJ Transit trains, Corbett said. A similar arrangement is in place on NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Rail Line, said Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesman.

“We’ll be in great shape. I know other transit systems around the country have a different situation, we’re lucky that way,” Corbett said Wednesday morning. “But the bigger concern for me is the supply chain.”

The agency has had supply chain issues getting parts for trains waiting for repairs, he said.

“It’s still very strained, any disruption to that will compound a bad situation so I’m very concerned,” Corbett said.

Supply chain issues were blamed for delays in the delivery date for NJ Transit’s newest cars, self-powered Multi-level III railcars ordered in Dec. 2018 that will replace the almost 45 year old Arrow cars.

“We want them (the Arrows) retired as soon as possible with the new Multilevel III’s which were supposed to be coming next year and were pushed back a year because of the supply chain, Corbett said.

The new railcars are made with parts for the new cars come from different manufacturers and locations, he said.

“Any further breakdown in that is likely to delay the new equipment as well,” Corbett said.

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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.

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