Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday night that he's "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst" regarding a possible NJ Transit rail strike.

NJ Transit pushed a critical service advisory to its hundreds of thousands of customers Thursday, urging them to get to their destinations before midnight or risk being stranded at the start of the first rail strike in decades.

New Jersey Transit and its train engineers were moving closer to a potential strike as early as next week, but both sides will first head to Washington to meet with a federal mediation board in hopes of averting a rail shutdown.

As late as Wednesday night, the two sides were expressing some optimism for a settlement. Since then, radio silence.

The National Mediation Board called NJ Transit and locomotive engineers to Washington to help thaw negotiations before a potential strike May 16.

If the engineers do walk off the job, the agency plans to increase bus service, saying it would add “very limited” capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and will contract with private carriers to operate bus service from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods.

After NJ Transit engineers rejected a grossly inadequate tentative agreement, the Federal government is attempting to prevent a strike that could cripple transit service in the state.