HE'S not one to toot his own horn, but when John Rose steps off the bus for the last time this week, it'll mark the end of a decades-long career of public service.
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Mr Rose has been behind of the wheel of buses in the Newcastle area for 23 years, driving through floods, dust storms, and a global pandemic.
He counts himself lucky to have navigated city streets, roads with ocean and lake views, and met a bunch of good passengers and drivers along the way.
"It is a great place up here to work," he said.
"There's a lot of good people, and it's the only thing they've got, the only sort of transport they've got.
"It's a good service and we try and get everyone where they want to go."
Before he was a bus driver, Mr Rose worked in Newcastle's rail industry and as a police officer, jobs he held for a decade each.
"I started out in about 1979 and it's gone really quick, really quick," he said.
Mr Rose has clocked up 43 years of public service, which runs in his blood.
His father, John Rose, was an inspector in the police force in the Newcastle area, and his son, also John Rose, was an officer too.
His grandson, the fourth generation John Rose, and his brother Bodhi Rose, love that their grandpa drives a big bus.
"The kids love the bus, they race straight up the back and sit down," Mr Rose said.
In a fitting farewell, they went to wave Mr Rose into a Newcastle bus stop this week.
Mr Rose said he felt strange about working his last shift and retiring on Friday, but was looking forward to taking a back seat and travelling at a slower pace.
"I'm happy but I'd rather be 40 and retiring," he joked.
"There's been a lot of good times, a lot of laughs, but the best part of all the jobs I have been in is the comradeship ... I've got a lot of good mates, I love that."
Mr Rose knows just about every street in Newcastle, but couldn't begin to guess how many kilometres he's traversed over the years.
The buses themselves have also come a long way since the turn of the century when Mr Rose started out.
"They were older buses back then, with no air conditioning, and vents out the front. In the winter, no heaters, you'd be freezing but you didn't know any different, and there was no power steering," he said.
Now, the modern machines are like driving a new car.
But now it's time for Mr Rose to make a change.
He'll put the brakes on, turn the key, and step off the bus for the last time on Friday.
"I've always been on a timetable and from Saturday, I do what I want," he said.
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Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald. Email: afalkenmire@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald. Email: afalkenmire@austcommunitymedia.com.au
