The effects of New Jersey Transit’s rail strike rippled across the region on Friday, disrupting travel plans for tens of thousands of commuters, hurting businesses that depend on riders’ spending and creating an opening for at least one company hoping to capitalize on the chaos.

With trains at a standstill after locomotive engineers walked off the job, the consequences for businesses like the Trackside Jo Cafe at Hoboken Terminal were clear immediately.

“The station is completely dead,” said the owner, Daisy McKeon, who sent some employees home early. “We can get through the weekend, but anything more than that makes me very nervous.”

The economic fallout from New Jersey’s first statewide rail strike in more than 40 years will largely depend on how long the agency’s trains, which carry about 70,000 people to jobs in New York City every workday, remain idle.

According to an analysis by the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group. every hour that all New Jersey Transit train commuters are late getting to work in the city could cost employers about $6 million in lost productivity,

About half those commuters work in high-paying industries like finance and information technology, the group said.