Mayor Andy Street reacts to the indefinite National Express bus drivers strike in Birmingham & West Midlands

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has reacted as National Express West Midlands bus drivers, engineers and office staff begin their first day of indefinite strike action today (Monday, March 20.

Industrial action taken by Unite the Union members at the bus company is causing chaos for public transport users, affecting schools, offices, public services and more. Since it is an indefinite strike, it is not known when it will end.

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) which is part of West Midlands Combined Authority, headed up by Mayor Andy Street, has teams out on the network to advise passengers.

In a series of tweets today (March 20), Mayor Street said : “Today will be utterly frustrating for the hundreds of thousands who rely on National Express to get to work, school & more. The team at the Regional Transport Coordination Centre are in place & using everything at their disposal to monitor the network & keep it moving.”

Mayor Street added: “But whilst @TransportForWM are doing all they can to help passengers, the only way to end the strikes - and the disruption for passengers - is for a fair deal to be reached. I am continuing to urge both National Express & Unite to get back round the table and sort this out.”

What commuters said about the strike

Commuters shared their frustration regarding commuting with the mayor and the bus company. One Twitter user wrote to the Mayor saying: “Any chance you can get them to reach a middle ground, as it has been hard for my husband to get a taxi from work, and I may face an hour and a half walk home from work later, this is the reality people are to face today and moving forward until an agreement can be reached.”

One Twitter user wrote to NXWM saying: “The x21 was supposed to be running this morning but did not arrive I waited for over an hour.” Another added: “Are there any form of interventions, discussions, meetings, deliberations going on to make sure it doesn’t last for 24hrs? This will cripple loads of businesses and daily livelihoods means. We can make it work. We need @nxwestmidlands back on the road. God bless UK.”

One mum said: “My daughter has to catch two buses, first didnt show up (it was meant to be running) the second one did, i told her to give the driver a big thank you for getting her to school ontime & safe (i dont drive, nor have any outside help.”