New Jersey Transit and rail union negotiators reached a deal Friday to avert a strike ahead of the Sunday deadline.

More than 100,000 people, including thousands in Rockland and Orange counties, would have been impacted by a strike, which was set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

After nearly nine hours of negotiation Friday, transit union spokesman Steve Burkert came out with other union leaders to announce the deal.

"We have reached a tentative agreement," he said. "Thankfully for the commuters of NJ Transit the crisis has been averted. We thank our members for having faith in us in solidarity. We're going home to our families."

Burkert did not take any questions from the media following the announcement.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie held a news conference soon after the announcement. He reiterated that a deal was reached, but said that it still needed to be ratified by the rail unions involved. He said that he would not discuss the financial details of the agreement until union leaders shared it with their members, but said that it would not require any fare increases.

The major issues that were being negotiated were health care and wage increases. About 4,000 NJ Transit workers had been working without a contract for nearly five years.

Officials in the Hudson Valley had prepared contingency plans had the strike occurred.