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.

Unless a last-minute deal is reached, a work stoppage by locomotive engineers would affect more than 300,000 commuters.

NJ Transit’s bus routes, the agency’s predominate lines in the region, would not be impacted. But rail lines would.