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

With just hours left before a 12:01 a.m. strike deadline set by the NJ Transit local that represents the Garden State’s hundreds of train engineers, spokesmen for the union and NJ Transit