Hamilton's bus drivers and the city will hold separate meetings next week to ratify a tentative deal that avoided a transit strike on Thursday.

Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 107 will vote next Wednesday on the agreement, said president Eric Tuck. The city will meet late next week.

"Is it the best deal we could have got? It's the best we can get under the circumstances," Tuck said. "I think we're moving forward with transit in Hamilton."

The two sides struck a deal just after 5 a.m. on Thursday after an all-night bargaining session. HSR drivers were in a legal strike position as of 12:01 a.m., and GO Transit had contingency plans in place in case there was a strike and pickets set up around GO facilities.

In the end, buses ran as scheduled in Hamilton on Thursday.

"Both sides agreed that the deal reached is a fair and responsible agreement that respects the needs of all stakeholders," said city spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos and Tuck said in a joint early-morning statement.

No details have been released on the deal. That includes the length of the contract, which has been a sticking point in negotiations. The transit union wants any contract length other than the usual four years, which routinely sees negotiations delayed because of municipal elections. Members have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2014.

The ATU will show the contract to members on Sunday, Tuck said.

Thursday morning, bus stops around downtown's busiest corridors were full of relieved commuters, though any joy they felt was tempered by chilly fog and rain. Students and workers talked of contingency plans they were glad they didn't have to take.

Tami Anderson usually takes a bus downtown from her home near Gage Park to catch a GO bus to Toronto. She thought she might have to take a vacation day — not exactly "an ideal vacation," she said — or force her non-morning-person brother to wake up early to take her. She was grateful to hear on the radio this morning that the strike was off.

'They have a trying job'

An HSR bus arrives at a stop in Gore Park the morning a tentative deal was struck between drivers and the city, avoiding a strike. (Kelly Bennett/CBC) For many commuters, getting to and from work is not the only trip in the day. Jessica Ballard said she's a single mom and student who uses the bus to take her two-year-old son to daycare before getting to school herself. She was relieved the strike wasn't happening this morning, but emphasized her hope that the city take care of its bus drivers.

"The city needs to treat the HSR with kindness, compassion and respect because they have a trying job," she said.

Tuck wanted to negotiate the contract earlier, he said. The union sent the letter a letter on Oct. 15 asking to start negotiating, but the Oct. 27 election pushed negotiations into January.

Still, Thursday was a success, he said.

"We wanted to avoid a strike," he said. "That's the main objective."

The ATU represents 658 bus drivers and mechanics.

Hamilton bus drivers earned a maximum of $29.44 per hour in 2014, in the upper middle range of comparator cities. TTC operators make $32.03 and GO Transit operators earn $31.88. In Waterloo, they earned $28.27 and in Guelph, $27.21.

The bus stops were buzzing as if nothing had happened: