NJ Transit locomotive engineers walked off the job just after midnight Friday, as a work stoppage brought to a halt a rail service used by 350,000 commuters.

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 engineers announced late Thursday that contract negotiations between the union and the transit agency failed to reach an agreement and that the union was going on strike. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen announced the move shortly after 11 p.