The second day of the strike<\/a> saw up to 600 drivers again walk out and man picket lines at two depots – Lawrence Hill and Hengrove<\/a> – disrupting services on CityLines routes across Bristol. But with no talks imminent or planned to end the dispute, First Bus bosses and union reps are now disputing the impact of the strike on Bristol.<\/p>\n First Bus boss Doug Claringbold said he was \u2018pleased to say\u2019 that more drivers have \u2018started to return to work\u2019, hinting that the strike could peter out if drivers decide to break the picket lines. But union leaders representing the striking drivers said that \u2018if anything, the opposite is true\u2019, and more drivers have walked out than on the first day of the strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bristol city centre<\/a> was something of bus park on Tuesday evening as drivers based at the Marlborough Street bus station depot left their buses in the city centre rather than return them to Lawrence Hill, where workers are on strike.<\/p>\n And the normally bus bus lanes and bus stops in the centre and out around the city from Hartcliffe<\/a> to Southmead<\/a> were eerily quiet on Tuesday evening, with all but two CityLines services stopping completely after 7pm.<\/p>\n That is set to continue for the rest of the week<\/a>, if the strike isn\u2019t ended, and Mr Doug Claringbold said he \u2018remains disappointed\u2019 at the strike action. \u201cYesterday, I spent some time at our affected depots and met some of my colleagues on the picket line, and I\u2019m pleased to say that more of our drivers have started to return to work today,\u201d he said at lunchtime on Wednesday.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol bus strike Day 2 – LIVE updates<\/a>READ MORE: The ‘unusual’ reason why Bristol bus drivers are on strike<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe recognise that this ongoing disruption is hugely inconvenient to customers and we can only apologise that travel plans are being affected.<\/p>\n “We remain disappointed that our full and final pay offer, which is significantly above inflation, was rejected, resulting in these disruptive strikes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n That was something disputed by Unite rep Ken Fish. \u201cIf anything, the opposite is true. We think we\u2019ve got more drivers out on strike today than there were yesterday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Yesterday, Bristol Live reported that First Bus said they were willing to talk to end the dispute, but Unite said they were rebuffed. \u201cWe saw that they said they were open to more talks, so we contacted them yesterday to ask. We were told that unless we were able to come up with something new to discuss, then there was no point,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Bus travel in Bristol is now severely disrupted, although with the non-striking drivers and the drivers based at the depots which voted to accept the pay deal, First estimates that 60 per cent of bus services ran as normal on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The dispute centres around the speed at which a pay increase will be implemented<\/a> and whether it will be backdated in full – not the actual amount of the pay rise, which has already been agreed.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol Bus Strike – full list of the services scrapped or reduced<\/a>READ MORE: Drivers and bosses apologise to Bristol on day one of bus strike<\/a><\/p>\n “We have been committed to improving the pay of drivers and continue to do so. Since 2021 a Bristol driver\u2019s basic earnings has increased from just over \u00a324,000 to more than \u00a331,000 – a 31% increase,\u201d said Mr Claringbold.<\/p>\n \u201cThis pay offer would increase these basic earnings to over \u00a333,000, with many drivers earning significantly more than this. Alongside pay, we are also investing heavily in staff facilities and conditions, including new buses and uniforms, and provide a range of benefits including health schemes.<\/p>\n “Despite our final pay offer being rejected \u2013 even though it was accepted in other areas across the region – we still hope to find a solution with the trade union to encourage them to call off their strikes.<\/p>\n “We have revised some of our timetables for Bristol, and encourage customers to check our website for more details before travelling,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now there’s a dispute over the impact of the strike 14:41, 17 Sep 2025Updated 14:42, 17 Sep 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,10648,748,393,45266,4884,14344,10001,10963,1263,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-431482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-live","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-firstgroup","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-hartcliffe","15":"tag-hengrove","16":"tag-southmead","17":"tag-transport","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115220416205579987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_TCB170925BusStrikeBRIjpeg.jpg\")
A view of buses and bus stop queues on Union Street on Day 1 of a four-day bus strike by drivers at two depots in Bristol(Image: Bristol Post)<\/p>\n![\"Doug](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757747185_785_0_GH140121doug1.jpg\")
Doug Claringbold, Managing Director for First West of England(Image: Western Daily Press)<\/p>\n