New Jersey transit unions could be headed to a strike if their dispute with leaders is not resolved soon. Their meeting with federal officials in Washington, DC could help them reach a settlement concerning an agreement regarding workers’ benefits and wages. New Jersey transit leaders have offered a new counter proposal in response to the demands from the union workers, and plans are to discuss the new proposal with the National Mediation Board in attendance, hoping the organization can help the parties come to a resolution.

Should the dispute lead to a strike, it would result in hundreds of thousands of commuters having to find another option to travel between New York City and New Jersey.

New Jersey transit workers have been without a contract since 2011. There are more than 4000 workers affected and they are not pushing for lower health care costs and higher wages. New Jersey Transit stated it is unable to honor their requests without passing along the additional costs of wages and benefits to commuters through higher fares.

Estimates from the transit authority show they handle more than 100,000 commuters per commute from New York to New Jersey and that number would drop to 40,000 under the contingency plans.  The contingency plan includes adding more services to the two dozen New Jersey transit bus routes, which otherwise are not affected by a transit strike. There would also be five additional park-and-ride locations that would allow commuters to ride buses into New York City or to use the ferry terminal or a PATH stop.

Officials have already stated tickets would be cross-honored on public and private buses, light rail, the ferry, and the PATH system, so commuters would not be forced to purchase additional tickets.