Leaders of SEPTA’s largest employee union, Transport Workers Local 234, and transportation agency management agreed Thursday to continue bargaining even though the current contract was set to expire early Friday morning, delaying a strike that has halted travel in the Philadelphia region would have hindered and disrupted schools. , workplaces and trade.

“We have made some progress toward a fair agreement and have decided to continue discussions,” TWU Local 234 President Brian Pollitt said shortly before 9:30 p.m. as the two sides left a meeting room in the Wyndham Philadelphia Historical District in Old City . “There will be no strike tonight.”

SEPTA will “negotiate in good faith” for a deal that is “fair to our hardworking employees and to the customers and taxpayers who fund SEPTA,” spokesman Andrew Busch said, noting that all SEPTA services will continue to operate on normal schedules Friday. .

» READ MORE: What you need to know about a possible SEPTA strike

Pollitt said negotiators will meet Friday to pick up where they left off. The strike option is still on the table, as the contract has not been formally extended.

“I still have the right to call a strike, but I’m trying to do the honorable thing,” he said. “We don’t want to hurt the people of this region if we can avoid it.”

The union is pushing for pay increases and safety improvements to protect frontline workers from attacks and harassment. SEPTA, for its part, has said the ongoing budget crisis limits its flexibility to spend money.

SEPTA had pushed for a one-year contract without raises until Thursday, Pollitt said.

Negotiators met for hours Thursday, racing against the clock in an effort to reach an agreement on a new contract as the 5,000-member union was poised to launch a strike that would have started shutting down SEPTA transit service in the city at 12:01 p.m. Friday.

“I will roll up my sleeves and pound the table and do everything I can do to prevent a strike,” Pollitt told reporters shortly after noon.

SEPTA also said it is prepared to redouble efforts at the negotiating table. Talks about wages seemed to have stalled. The transportation agency opened with an offer of a one-year contract without a raise for union members.

SEPTA is facing a $240 million deficit that could soon lead to service cuts and a second fare increase without action in Harrisburg on increasing state aid for public transit systems as proposed by Governor Josh Shapiro .

Local 234 represents bus, subway and trolley operators, mechanics, cashiers, maintenance workers and custodians. Members voted unanimously in favor of a strike last week.

SEPTA’s Broad Street and Market-Frankford Lines and the city’s trolley and bus routes would not operate during the events. walk off the track.

Regional rail, the Norristown High Speed ​​Line, suburban buses, the Media/Sharon Hill trolley lines and paratransit would continue to operate.

Asked about SEPTA’s financial problems, Pollitt said the agency has a $600 million “rainy day fund” and should use some of that to invest in its workforce. “We don’t want it all,” he said.

SEPTA says the balance in the cash account, called the Service Stabilization Fund, fluctuates from day to day and month to month as money moves to pay operating and capital costs and revenue comes from sources such as state grants.

The balance stood at $565 million as of June 30, the fiscal year end, and the account currently holds $286 million in cash, after falling to $105 million last month before some already promised state grants arrived, SEPTA said officials.

Using working capital for wage increases would worsen the budget crisis by increasing costs in the future, officials said — unless there was another source of funding to support the long-term commitment.

In a previous interview with The Inquirer, Pollitt said the agency often “miraculously” finds cash to fund its priorities, including $40 million in planning and design for a proposed extension of the Norristown High Speed ​​Line to King of Prussia – a project suspended indefinitely after the Federal Transit Administration declined to help finance it.

“SEPTA has a tendency to make people think they are stuck. That is not the case,” Pollitt said in the interview.

Meanwhile, board members and staff are considering an overall rate increase of 22.5% early next year, on top of an effective 7.5% increase implemented in October by eliminating some discounts.

That step would amount to SEPTA riders pay about 30% more for each transit trip.

SEPTA is known as one of the most strike-prone major transit systems in the country. Since 1975, at least eleven unions have quit their jobs. Last year, SEPTA police officers went on strike for three days in December after working without a contract for nine months.

» READ MORE: A History of SEPTA Strikes