From Moncton, New Brunswick: Bus Story # 2 from Bill Jarvis

Bill Jarvis drove a bus for 25 years in Moncton, New Brunswick. He shared this winter bus story with me in a recent email, and when I asked, gave me permission to post it in This Week’s Featured Story.


At Tours to Remember Inc./Metro School Bus Service, Moncton, New Brunswick, the 5 highway coaches lived in the heated garage when not on the road. The 45 school buses were kept outdoors in a fenced and locked compound.

Len was a driver for many years. He had a regular school bus route carrying special needs children, and drove charters as well.

One bitterly cold, windy Sunday morning (temperature about minus 30ºC) Len had a charter with a school bus. When he tried to open the padlock on the gate, the key would not turn. Thinking the lock was frozen, he tried warming it in his bare hands, then tried turning the key harder. It broke off.

Next, he went in the garage. The door the drivers used was next to the bus entrance, with the wash-bay immediately inside it. Len got a hacksaw from the tool room, and went back to cut the lock. With a hardened Viro padlock, that was slow work. Len never wore a hat, and he was very  cold. By the time he got the lock cut, he was late for his charter. He returned the hacksaw to the toolroom.  As he was leaving the garage, he glanced at a school bus sitting in the wash bay. It was the bus he had been assigned for the charter. The cleaners had left it there for him, so it would be warm and easy to start. This was the fourth time he had walked by it.

 The next day at home, Len found out why the key broke. It was the key to his shed.