Great People

Waiting for a city bus in driving, icy rain, Melanie Benson found her calling. "When that red bus came over the hill it looked like my savior and I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job where everyone’s glad to see you all the time?’" she said.

That flash of inspiration – Benson calls it an "epiphany" – occurred in late 1974. It led the then-student at Macalaster College to apply for a job as a Metro Transit operator soon after earning her degree in humanities. She started on Oct. 11, 1976, and retired 47 years later as Metro Transit's longest-serving operator. 

"This is the longest full-time job I’ve ever had," she joked before a crowd of family members, longtime riders, and co-workers who gathered for an April 2024 send-off at Nicollet Garage. "Oh that’s right, it’s been the only job I’ve ever had."

Benson never wavered largely because she came to see the people on her bus not just as riders but as friends. For most of her career, Benson drove on Route 23, and she came to know just about everyone who got on board. "If you drive a route like it’s a neighborhood, you find that people are all connected," she said. 

In 2020, Melanie Benson was recognized as the Minnesota Public Transit Association's Operator of the Year. Her longevity also led to media interest, including stories in her final year on the job from KARE-11, The Star Tribune and Racket. 

In retirement, Benson said she plans to continue riding the bus, to visit friends at Nicollet, and to continue working on a book about her experience as a bus operator

In 1979, a teenaged Tom Vang immigrated from Laos to Minnesota with his father to be close to family and to find opportunities. About a decade later, he found opportunity at Metro Transit.

“I was working as a teacher and working part time at Metro Transit,” Vang said. “After a few years of doing both, I realized the pay and benefits were better being a bus driver.”

Like many college graduates, Vang discovered a great career that wasn’t a title printed on their degree. His degree and experience in education did prove helpful in his newfound career as a classroom filled with students and a busload of passengers share a lot in common.

“I work with people,” he said. “And when you work with people, you work with difficult ones sometimes.”

When he began, operators made $8 an hour, buses were red and had no power steering nor air conditioning, Snelling Garage still existed and Ruter was called Shingle Creek. Today, as he leaves Metro Transit with all the modern advancements and amenities operators enjoy, Vang realizes that his 34 years  went by fast.

“Metro Transit is a place to meet lots of different people onboard and in the garage,” Vang said. “The time here goes by fast.”

He recommends Metro Transit as a great place to grow a career and recommends working here to others, including his son Johnny, now an operator with ten years of service and counting. During Johnny’s early years, Vang served as a mentor and answered all his questions. And the same advice he gave his son, he’ll happily share with others.

“Stick with it. With time, you get seniority,” he said. “And try to do your best every day.”

In retirement, Vang plans to travel to Europe and South America. And, when he’s not traveling, he’ll tend to his 7-acre hobby farm with sweet corn, mustard greens, and a host of other plants.

Tim Smith always wanted to be a bus operator and ended up a teacher.

“I used to ride Twin City Line’s Route 16 with my mother and that’s when I became fascinated with buses – how they worked, where they went,” Smith said. “From an early age, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

And, for multiple decades he did. Smith also knew that he wanted to work at Metro Transit, but like many, he started working for other transportation companies, like schools and other regional providers. When he began here in 1991, he split his time between Metro Transit and another company as he worked both part time.

“It was a changing of the guards and a changing of the uniform,” he said. “I’d take off my light blue uniform and put on my Army green uniform.”

That old transit uniform was one of many changes the St. Paul native saw throughout his transit journey – from the name of the company (MTC to Metro Transit), the color of the buses and uniforms, garages opening and closing, and new technologies like electric buses.

“I trained at Old Snelling Garage which was the old instruction center and started at Shingle Creek Garage,” Smith said. “There’s been a lot of changes in my time.”

And this included changes for his career. After an instructor noticed his work ethic around bus operations, they suggested that he consider becoming an instructor. That nudge launched him into the next phase of his career, first as a relief instructor in 1999, then a full-time instructor at the Instruction Center in 2008.

“I trained thousands of people throughout my career,” Smith said. “And they remember you throughout their careers.”

As an instructor, he taught not only bus operators, but any staff operating large or complex vehicles with his certifications to teach Commercial Drivers License, Class A, forklift, and Safety Keys. He’s proud of the high standards Metro Transit has for training. While he enjoys instruction, there’s still that kid inside of him who fell in love with buses and just wants to operate them. During the pandemic and short of staff, he got a consistent opportunity to fulfill his need to drive.

“It felt so good to get behind the wheel again,” he said. “But now it’s time to move on. I’ve put my time in.”

In retirement, Smith and his wife plan to move southwest for the weather and to be near family. They also plan to road trip around the United States.

Forty-five years ago, Karen Underwood began as a temp revenue worker at Metro Transit, and that’s all she thought it would be: temporary.

“I was just out of college, didn’t know what I wanted to do, and needed a job to pay the bills,” Underwood said. “I thought, ‘I’m just a temp – I don’t need to stay here.’”

However, she felt guided to stick with it. After 6 months on the job, a permanent position became available and was offered to her. “I decided I would stay here and develop my role as much as I could,” she said.

As a revenue clerk, she learned about Service Development when riding and counting passengers were added to her duties. It wasn’t long before she became interested and sought a position as a planner.

“I didn’t have a degree in Urban Studies, but I was good with math and maps,” Underwood said.

While she didn’t get the role the first time, she studied hard and applied again for the next planner opening in Service Development. She eventually became an analyst, which focuses on improving service now versus long term planning, a role that suits her.

“I wound up in a job I love,” she said. “I got to see the impact of the work I do in the field.”

The impact she is most proud of is advocating for 3rd shift workers and non-native English speakers. Route 68 is one of the services she advocated and expanded the hours of weekend service to ensure that these workers could rely on transit to commute to work. This improvement was especially important during the pandemic.

“We’re doing much better at reaching out to these underrepresented groups and recognizing service for essential workers,” Underwood said. “It’s gratifying to see the agency do more of this.”

She enjoyed her time at transit so much, she encouraged her husband to apply when he was looking for a job. He became a part-time bus operator and recently retired as well. “There’s lots of opportunities here, classes to help you develop, and other roles to take on,” she said.

In retirement, she plans to continue volunteering, go camping with family, and travel as much as possible with Indonesia, Uganda, and Switzerland at the top of the list.

While riding Route 5 in high school to his job, Bob Little decided that he wanted to work at Metro Transit.

“College didn’t interest me, and I knew that Metro Transit had good job opportunities,” Little said.

Throughout his career, he was able to move around not only job locations but job titles. Forty-three years ago, he began his career as a cleaner at the Old Snelling Garage, followed by Shingle Creek Garage (Ruter), Old Northside, and Old Nicollet. But his goal was to advance into a mechanic role.

“I’ve always been mechanically minded,” he said. “I used to scare my mother by taking apart things – she worried I wouldn’t get them back together – but I always did.”

Little became a mechanic at the Old Snelling and South garages, but that’s just the beginning of his career journey filled with new skills he’d acquire. Next, he learned to weld and welded new frames on buses at the Overhaul Base. Then, he grew an interest in HVAC and became certified to fix those system at the “new” Nicollet Garage.

Then he learned that Public Facilities needed people and became licensed in boiler repair. From there he moved to the opening of the Blue Line facility and took care of all the rail platforms at that facility. Next, he worked at the Old Public Facilities building on Hoover and East Hennepin as a senior mechanic. In 2011, he made his final career stop at South Garage as a facilities technician for Public Facilities.

“I never really wanted to become a manager or supervisor,” Little said. “I was always more interested in doing the work.”

And what kept him here all these years was the ability to move around, learn new skills, and work with people who were always willing to help.

"This is a place you can grow into,” he said. “And the people care about you.”

This experience made all times he worked through extreme weather, including the coldest day on record (-35 degrees), and the blizzards of 1981 and 1991 worthwhile. He proud of the fact that he never missed a day due to weather. In retirement, however, he’ll be happy to sit them out.

“I won’t miss driving to work before the plows hit the highways!” he joked.

In retirement, Little plans to spend more time with his wife who recently retired and travel the world. As he’s 100% Irish, Ireland is at the top of the list followed by a trip to see the Andes.