NJ Transit and a locomotive engineer’s union are still negotiating with less than a day until a strike deadline. At a press conference Wednesday night, NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri and union officials expressed optimism about a deal being made before midnight.

New Jersey Transit urged riders to reach their destinations before the end of the day Thursday or risk being stranded as talks continued in a bid to avert a rail strike by train engineers that would affect some 350,000 commuters who work in New Jersey and New York City.

The New Jersey Transit board on Wednesday night pushed the Garden State to the brink of its first major rail strike since 1983, adjourning their monthly meeting without cutting a deal with the agency’s locomotive engineer union.