Bus strikes alert

Drivers pledge to bring city to a halt this week

- Tristan CORK

US drivers have warned they will 'bring Bristol to a standstill' when they go on strike tomorrow for four days during what is traditionally the busiest week on the roads of the city.

More than 600 drivers with the Unite union have voted to strike over a pay offer from First Bus West of England.

The union warned the strike, which will last four days from tomorrow to Friday, will 'cause severe disruption to services in inner-city Bristol and the surrounding area'.

First Bus has been putting together an emergency timetable, but anticipates that buses will be down to just one an hour on all the regular routes.

This week is one of the busiest, if not the busiest, in Bristol's traffic calendar, and has often seen gridlock in recent years, even without industrial action. It’s the first full week for both universities, with more than 70,000 students adding to Bristol’s population and trying to navigate the city’s bus and public transport system.

Added to that, the schools are back and it has always traditionally been the week where the autumn weather signals a decrease in the number of people walking or cycling to and from work. Two of Bristol’s three First Bus depots voted to reject, while the other one accepted First's offer.