Thousands of Shakira fans will descend on MetLife Stadium Thursday and Friday night but they won’t have mass transit to get there — even if NJ Transit doesn’t go on strike at midnight as planned. NJ Transit said on Monday that its rail and bus lines to MetLife Stadium will not be running during the two-day period.

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.