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PHILADELPHIA -- Resolute, angry transit workers vowed to remain on strike for weeks or even months if they don't get an acceptable contract, a grim prospect for hundreds of thousands of riders forced to find other ways to get around.

City buses, subways and trolleys were idle for a second day Tuesday as employees of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority walked picket lines and settled in for what some predicted would be an extended work stoppage.

Contract talks between SEPTA and the Transport Workers Union broke off Sunday night, and about 5,300 union members walked off the job for the first time since 1998. No new face-to-face talks were scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon, although union and SEPTA representatives huddled separately with a mediator.

"I'm lonelier than the Maytag repairman. We're sitting at the hotel, waiting for the union negotiators," said SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney.

SEPTA said union leaders rejected a contract offer that would have required employees to pay 5 percent of their health insurance premiums. Veteran workers currently pay nothing. SEPTA's offer also included a 9 percent pay increase over three years.

The union contends that SEPTA is trying to renege on a deal made years ago in which workers would get modest pay raises in exchange for free health care.

At the Frankford bus terminal in northeast Philadelphia, dozens of SEPTA workers carried signs, grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and vented about the agency's contract proposals.

"I gotta do what I gotta do to keep my benefits. You can't give back one cent," said Gene Hetrick, a 32-year-old bus mechanic and father of four. "It's a covenant we made and now they want us to pay. I know how the public might perceive it, but it's unfair."

Bus driver Bob Horn said he and other longtime employees began saving money months ago in anticipation of a work stoppage. He said he has enough cash to last him through Christmas.

"After 31 years of service, they're going to pull the rug out? That's not going to happen," said Horn, 53.

The walkout inconveniences about 400,000 daily riders, including 27,000 public school students who receive free or subsidized transit tokens.

In Center City, huge lines formed Tuesday afternoon at the Market East station, a hub of the Regional Rail system that is the only part of SEPTA not affected by the strike.

A subway rider, Toks Adibuah, 24, said she is using cabs, hitching rides from co-workers and hopping on unfamiliar railroad trains to get to work, adding at least an hour a day to her commute and $40 a week to her transportation costs.

"It's really stressful. I just don't even want to talk about it," she said.

SEPTA driver Horn predicted the strike to last three or four weeks -- a prospect that worries fellow driver Kimberly Clark, 37, also picketing at the Frankford station Tuesday.

Clark, a single mother of four, wonders how she will pay the bills with no income. She joined SEPTA only seven months ago, taking home about $310 a week after taxes. She has no savings.

"I hope it ends real fast," said Clark, cradling her nearly 2-year-old son. "I can't afford it. I'm poor."

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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