Four hundred and fifty train engineers at New Jersey Transit (NJT) walked off the job early Friday morning, after years of fruitless negotiations with their employer.

These workers drive the state-run commuter trains that serve 350,000 daily riders in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. As of late Thursday night, NJT train service was completely shut down. The transit system is running additional buses as an alternative, but it’s extremely unlikely that they can make up the difference.

“I take pride in what I do,” said one longtime engineer on the picket line, who didn’t want to give his name for fear of retaliation. “It gives me great joy taking my commuters to and from work every day. I’m moving hundreds of commuters. We didn’t want to get to this point, but we’re here.”