Less than a week before a strike deadline for the nation’s second-busiest commuter railroad, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is heading for vacation with his wife.

Christie, the 53-year-old Republican who ended his run for president last month, will be celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, he told reporters in Newark. New Jersey Transit and 11 of its rail unions, meanwhile, were gathering at a Newark hotel to negotiate a labor agreement five years after the most recent one expired.

The unions have set a deadline of 12:01 a.m. on March 13 to strike if an accord isn’t reached. New Jersey Transit’s contingency plans, which rely on extra bus service, can accommodate just four in 10 commuters who typically take trains. About 65,000 people will have to make alternative arrangements, the agency said, and can anticipate back-ups of as much as 25 miles on major roadways including the New Jersey Turnpike and Interstate 78.

“I’m never truly on vacation,” Christie said Monday after visiting a charter school. “I’m away and I’m hoping to have a little bit of time to relax but as long as I’m carrying a phone with me, I’m governor of New Jersey, as I’ve been saying now for the last year.”

His wife, Mary Pat Christie, a bond trader who left her job at Angelo Gordon & Co. to be more available to him and the couple’s four children as he campaigned, “has made a great deal of sacrifices over the course of the last year or two with my absences, ” he said. He didn’t disclose where they are vacationing or for how long.

(c) 2016, Bloomberg · Elise Young