Seoul: Unionized bus drivers in Seoul have reached a collective wage deal with the management, ending a two-day strike that caused major disruptions for commuters, according to officials.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the agreement was reached late Wednesday during a special mediation session at the Seoul branch of the National Labor Relations Commission after nine hours of negotiations. Bus services in the capital were scheduled to operate normally starting Thursday morning, marking the end of the bus drivers' first strike in two years. The strike had commenced on Tuesday after wage talks broke down.

The finalized agreement includes a 2.9 percent wage increase and a plan to gradually extend the retirement age to 65 by July next year from the current 63. The strike significantly inconvenienced commuters, with only 562, or 8 percent, of the city's 7,018 intracity buses in operation on Wednesday morning.

In response to the strike, the Seoul city government increased the number of additional subway services during rush hour from 172 on Tuesday to 203 on Wednesday. The peak commuter train service hours were also extended by two hours on Wednesday compared to just one hour on Tuesday.

Authorities took further measures to manage platform congestion by dispatching empty trains to heavily congested subway stations during rush hour and more than doubling safety personnel at 86 major stations. Additionally, the city government mobilized 677 chartered buses on 134 routes throughout the capital on Tuesday, serving 86,035 passengers. On Wednesday, 86 more chartered buses were deployed, increasing the total to 763.