NJ Transit rail engineers are set to strike if a deal cannot be reached by the midnight deadline, impacting hundreds of thousands of commuters.

NJ Transit riders are facing massive service disruptions as the system barrels like a runaway train toward Thursday’s midnight deadline to avoid its first major rail strike in over 40 years. The Garden State-owned rail service has already festooned stations with screaming-red signage warning of deep service cuts starting at midnight Friday if contract negotiations with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union fall through.

NJ Transit is spending $2.7 billion to retire all its old trains, which will increase reliability for riders by 2031.

Talks continue Thursday to avert a walkout by NJ Transit engineers Friday at 12:01 a.m., sending 350,000 to find alternate rides.

As NJ Transit enters the final hours of negotiations with the workers’ union, the transit agency is warning commuters to prepare for service to end on Friday at midnight. NJ Transit added a notice to its website warning travelers to get to their destinations by 11:59 p.

Gov. Phil Murphy campaigned for the State House eight years ago on a promise to fix New Jersey’s transit system. He called NJ Transit a “national disgrace,” and blamed his predecessor Chris Christie for not investing in the system used by more than 170,000 weekday rail riders.