new Jersey Transit Train Service is back on track today following the first commuter rail strike here in over 40 years after the agency reached a tentative contract agreement with the engineers union ending the work stoppage both sides aren't sharing details of the deal until it's ratified next month but the union's general manager did tell NJ Spotlight News it boosts hourly pay beyond the proposals members initially rejected governor Murphy and New Jersey Transit CEO Chris Calori have said the new contract is both fair and financially responsible to taxpayers many of whom were just happy to be back to their normal commutes this morning senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan reports nj Transit trains rolled early this morning with engineers back on the job after ending a three-day strike over wages after making do with the path fairies and parking rides thousands of rail riders across the state eased back into familiar rush hour routines in Newark oh I feel great i mean it's it's like night and day so I'm appreciative that uh they got a deal done so it's good my first day commuting to work was Friday and it took 3 hours to get home so I'm actually really happy that the trains are back on and congratulations to the transit workers for successfully negotiating their contract so you were behind them all the way of course labor all the way right some rail riders did experience delays due to a disabled train at New York's Penn Station an Amtrak switch problems that started in Elizabeth in other words a regular day on the railroad nj Transit spent Monday doing safety inspections required before the system could reboot i'm glad trains are running again yes yes yes i'm very happy it means a whole lot to me because I had to catch the bus and I had to leave out my house much earlier just to get to work i took the train this morning from Princeton Junction it was on time the windows were clean uh and the customers and our riders couldn't have been any more happy nj Transit CEO Chris Caller arrived at Newark Penn Station where he thanked riders and agency staff for their patience negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen had dragged on since 2019 the tenative deal raises union wages but not transit fairs or taxes kuri promised this is a fiscally sound package that was uh that was negotiated otherwise the governor and I would not have signed off on it and uh the the the the riders should feel confident that the budgets that we put in place especially for this year will have no impact but NJ Transit's budget already includes a bakedin 3% fair hike in July and some commuters worry about what's coming down the tracks they say no fair hike um we're going to wait and see on that one i don't believe it maybe I don't absolutely not maybe not at this present moment there will be no fair hike but it's going to come we always get hit with it eventually and it's not fair because it's not like the service gets any better there's also some skepticism over the union deal in Trenton where Republicans like Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz have long called for a financial audit of the chronically cash starved agency we've just negotiated a pay increase with no talk about where that money is going to come from they're assuring us that they're not going to have a fair increase or increase in taxes but how are they going to pay for this we don't know those details i have been requesting and asking for an audit of NJ Transit for a number of years now we need to look into those finances both NJ Transit and the union have resisted publicizing details of the tenative agreement which raises wages to nearly what engineers at New York Railroads are earning in exchange for concessions on work rules and medical benefit contributions according to union sources NJ Transits engineers will keep driving the trains as they vote on the new contract in New York i'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight News