MONCTON, NB–Members of the Amalgamated Transit union, local 1290, will meet Friday morning to vote on a tentative agreement reached with the City of Moncton to end the Codiac Transpo lockout.

Union President George Turple says things went well during a membership meeting on Wednesday.

“Everyone seems to be quite pleased with this, so I don’t see any problems moving forward here.  It’s a matter of just getting through the formalities and take it from there.”

Mayor George Leblanc says five months without bus service has taken its toll on a lot of people.

“I never lost sight of the fact that this was hard.  It was very hard for the people who rely on the bus system, and it was always my hope that we would get this done quickly, rather than over a long period of time.  It did take longer than I would have liked.  We’re going to do our best to get the service back up and running.”

He also says there may be fewer people who return to riding the bus.  

“I’m sure it’s going to have an impact on the bus usership, if you will, and that is something that we recognize, and we’re going to do all we can to get people back on the buses.”

The details of the agreement are not being revealed until it’s ratified by both sides.

it could take up to three weeks to get the buses back on the roads of Greater Moncton again.