On Friday, train drivers in New Jersey went on strike. About 350,000 people who use the trains in New Jersey and New York City had to find other ways to travel or stay home.

The workers are striking because they didn't agree on a deal during talks on Thursday. This is the first time in over 40 years that public transport workers in the state have gone on strike. It happens after the workers voted against a work agreement with the bosses last month.

"We gave them our final idea, but they didn't like it and left, even though there were still two hours to go," said Tom Haas, who leads the train engineers' group.

NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said they have stopped talking for now.

He said on Thursday that he really wanted to continue these talks soon. He was speaking at a meeting with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. "If they want to meet tonight, I will meet them again tonight. If they want to meet tomorrow morning, I will meet them again. I think we can solve this problem quickly. The question is, do they want to find a solution?"

Murphy said it was important to "make a final agreement that is fair for workers, and also doesn't cost too much for people who travel and pay taxes in New Jersey."

The union said they talked about the contract for 15 hours without stopping before the announcement. People are expected to start protesting at 4 a.m. on Friday.

NJ Transit is a big transport system that runs buses and trains in New Jersey. It helps about 1 million people travel each day, including to New York City. Because of the strike, all NJ Transit trains are stopped. These trains are used a lot by people travelling between New York City and towns in New Jersey, and also to Newark airport, which has had some problems lately.

The company said they had plans ready in case of problems. They wanted to have more buses, but said these buses would only help a little bit on some routes near train stations in New York. The buses would start on Monday. The company will also ask other bus companies to help from some park-and-ride places when most people are travelling.

But the agency said the buses can't carry as many people as the trains. Only about 20% of the train users will fit on the buses. So, they asked people who can work from home to do that if there is a strike.

Because of the worry about it, travel was already difficult. The travel company was not sure what would happen, so they stopped the trains and buses for Shakira's concerts on Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The groups met on Monday in Washington to talk about the problem with a mediator. On Thursday, they talked again with a mediator. Kolluri said on Thursday night that they might meet again on Sunday morning to continue talking.

The biggest problem in talks between the company and the train workers' union is pay. The union wants its workers to get paid the same as workers at other train companies nearby. They say their members earn $113,000 a year on average, and they could agree if the company boss, Kris Kolluri, agrees to pay them $170,000 a year on average.

However, NJ Transit doesn't agree with the union's information. They say their engineers earn $135,000 a year on average, and some earn more than $200,000.

Kolluri and Murphy said on Thursday that the main problem is not if they can agree on higher pay. The problem is if they can agree without causing other unions to ask for the same, which would be too expensive for NJ Transit.

Congress can stop the strike and make the union agree to a deal. But this time, they don't want to do that, like they did in 2022 to stop a train strike.

The union at NJ Transit has lost members because many are leaving for better jobs at other train companies. For example, there used to be 500 engineers, but now there are only about 450.