Another typical bus ride for me. I’m on my line 58, which I call Fifty-late sometimes on account of it nearly always being late, especially during rush hour. My second option to my 51 that nearly gets me to my door. I relish the coolness of the bus. This is an old bus, had it been hot outside, this bus would’ve been a greenhouse inside, not that my other option was any better, in fact, it was the same, only a year older of a bus and 10’ shorter.
We are going on up Jefferson, Westbound to Beaverton TC and out of downtown Portland. The bus rolls up past the park blocks, outbound and we near the large SW 10th and Jefferson bus stop. The bus stop was full.--two old 40’ Gillig Phantom buses + one ginormous mechanic truck means not enough space for a third 40’ bus to pull in.
I glance at the bus driver wondering what he is thinking about this—my first thoughts were ‘wow’ and ‘oh boy, now which of these buses broke down?’ The driver slows to a crawl; I imagine he is thinking ‘okay, now where are my passengers…and why do these TriMet vehicles have to be in the way’. Instantly, as we slow, we see a passenger emerge from in front of the second bus parked at the stop waving frantically with a small herd of other 58 riders behind her. Unsurprising; I would’ve done the same.
The bus pulls up in the miniscule gap between the back of the mechanic truck and the front of the second Gillig bus, still in the roadway, but he can’t do anything about that. As the passengers board, I look over past the mechanic truck to see both of the bus drivers of the Gillig buses and the mechanic standing together talking.
“Alright, that’s great and all, but could you maybe move your vehicles a ways so that other buses can get into the stop to serve their passengers without blocking traffic?” I thought.
“Ah well,” I sigh. “At least this isn’t the transit mall.”
By this time, the mini hoard of passengers has boarded our 58 and we set off again, moving at no more than 10mph.
I hear a shout. It sounded like it came from the sidewalk where the bus stop was, so I glanced over there and sure enough I see two people running frantically to catch our bus, probably thinking about catching it at the next stop which is up at SW 13th, but they dive out of view again as the run past the first bus parked at the stop.
“Looks like you’ve got two people running for the bus,” I say to the bus driver.
Not a word comes from him, but when as we cross over SW 10th, the 58 runners are in clear view about halfway up to SW 11th on Jefferson. I just smile and think of the times that that was me.
We are now nearing SW 12th, still continuing on Jefferson st. and we are then next to the bus runners. The driver honks a few times at them. They don’t pay any notice until the bus stops and honks some more. Only then did one of the guys turn to look and saw the bus waiting for them. He calls out to his friend and they jog quickly over to the waiting bus. Gasping for breath, they hop on into the bus and get out their wallets to pay. Between heavy breaths they say a hearty ‘Thank you’ to the driver who smiles, and then says ‘You’re welcome.’
A verse from one of my favorite Beatles songs comes into my head, “Made the bus in seconds flat” (A Day in the Life, for those Beatles lovers out there). And they sure did. They were just lucky that they had a nice driver who was kind enough to stop for them. If he hadn’t, they might not have made the bus at all.
