Some 350,000 commuters could soon be scrambling for other ways to reach their destinations if New Jersey Transit engineers walk off the job early Friday.

NJ Transit is already preparing for the walkout by urging as many people as possible to start working from home.

NJ Transit and an engineers’ union appear to be steaming ahead to the first major rail strike in decades starting early Friday, even as both sides convene in Washington, D.C., where they pledged to continue negotiations.

Beyonce fans might be better off riding a horse to next week’s “Cowboy Carter” concerts at MetLife Stadium if a strike shuts down NJ Transit rail service. NJ Transit’s train engineers could walk off the job as soon as Friday after Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers members voted to reject a tentative agreement between the leaders of the agency and the union.

With a strike looming as soon as Friday, officials of NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers met with the National Mediation Board on Monday in Washington. No agreement was reached. NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri thanked the board for convening the meeting in a statement,

The National Mediation Board has called representatives for NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers to a meeting Monday in Washington, D.C., as New Jersey sits on the brink of its first major rail strike in four decades.