Posts Tagged tale by driver
Cookie is the answer
I drive the 3 line and enjoy it for the foreign students. I’ve managed to have a few conversations and learn a bit about their countries. One of the passengers with whom I spoke was an Egyptian woman with a preschool-aged daughter, Maya.
Drivers think you’re a jerk
This happened at Snelling Garage about fifteen years ago. Each garage has several dispatchers who assign the buses to the drivers and make sure that the work gets covered when a driver gets sick, oversleeps or doesn’t make it to work for whatever reason.
But the porch light was on!
Believe it or not, some drivers spoil their passengers. One such was Jim, who retired about two years ago. I used to relieve him on the 74 and as he got his things together to get off the bus it sounded like the end of a family reunion, what with all the see-you-tomorrows [...]
The hot chick
During the summer of 2006 I had a very early pullout on the 3–5:15AM, to be exact. It left downtown St. Paul at 5:25. Each morning while waiting to leave on the first trip a woman in her late forties and a man in his late twenties would come down Cedar toward the [...]
Prison Visit
Years ago, before the routes is St. Paul were all renumbered, there was the 12 line, Rice-East 6th Street. It had limited service all the way to Stillwater. On Sunday this was great work. The work I did pulled out at 10:16AM to Hamline and Hoyt. From there it went to [...]
Crossed Routes
Long ago, way back when the bus company was still the MTC, there were two routes that came in from Woodbury that crossed each other before getting downtown. One was the 94M, the other was the 94W. Both routes were shown on a single map.
A tone of resignation
Years ago in St. Paul there was the 34 line. It went from Midway Center, through Hamline University and down Minnehaha Ave on its way to downtown. It passed a seniors hi-rise on Hamline and Minnehaha and another on Victoria and Minnehaha. It was a very lightly traveled route, so most of [...]
Man of 1,000 Schedules
About once or twice a week, an elderly gentleman would get on my bus, and ride just two blocks south, to catch the 17 going into the city. That in it’s self isn’t unusual. He would board, pay his fare, and ask for two bus schedules, one for him, and one for his buddy. [...]
Lost in translation
I was describing this site to another driver, Leo, and he came up with a couple of good stories. Back when the fare was $1.50 he picked up five passengers at a stop, only one of whom spoke even a smattering of English. He believes they were German.
Mildred, the Church Lady
Mildred, the Church Lady, from Minnetonka took the bus every day to connect to the 12 going downtown, to go to Mass at St Olaf’s. One day she wasn’t there. Then a week weny by. I got worried, she usually never missed a day, much less a whole week. I called the local police to [...]
