Last stop for Strabane bus driver Noel after remarkable 50-year journey

What began as a summer job for teenager Noel Christy gradually transformed into 50 years of servicing public transport in the North West. But Noel will close the doors on his remarkable career when he leaves Translink on Monday.

His retirement will bring an end to a combined century of service between his family and the organisation, which his father joined when it was still the Ulster Transport Authority.

“My dad did 50 years and I could’ve been away a couple of years ago,” said Noel. “But I said no, I’m going to do the 50. Just something in my head I had to do. If you’re listening up there, da, I’m beating you by four days… he’ll be laughing at that!”

Originally from Strabane, he recalls his father coming home one day and telling him there was a summer job available. Aged 17, Noel started out cleaning, fuelling and washing buses at the Pennyburn depot. By 21, his father had told him he was old enough to undergo driver training, as Noel grabbed the opportunity (quite literally) with both hands - even on the days he wasn’t scheduled.

“If a driver was off sick and it was my day off, my dad would call and say: ‘Right Noel, you’ve to come down here and work!’ But we got to spend time with each other. When he retired, I said he was an old man but 60s is the new 40s now as far as I’m concerned. You have to think like that.”

Noel greatly values the friendships he’s made over 50 years working at the depot, and credits how the staff came together in support of each other during the Troubles, when buses were often subjected to attacks or hijackings.

The frightening nature of the first hijacking incident prompted his mother to tell him he wouldn't be going back to work. But Noel was determined to keep going, and it was his ‘work family’ who helped him through.

He recalls: “I got that used to it. I would tell them you have no cause to stand beside me pointing a gun at my side. Just tell me where to go and I drove. I calmed them down and I calmed myself down. It was just a part of life.”

Noel added: “My nerves were wrecked, but we were all one happy family. Everyone kept everyone grounded and we used to talk about it every day we went in for our tea, talking about what happened the night before. Ulsterbus gave us support if we needed to talk too.”

Driving uses provided more than just the support of the friends he made. It was also how he came to meet his future wife.

“I met my wife - Donna - I would say it was a blind date on the bus,” Noel explains. “She got my bus a few times but I didn’t notice her at the time. I should’ve noticed her because she is a beautiful woman. A guy working with me used to say, ‘there is a girl from Creggan there, she’s wild about you’. I said, ‘dead on, get me her phone number and I’ll believe you!’

A few days later his colleague handed him a piece of paper with her number on the back. After the note fell out of his pocket a short while later, Noel gathered up some 10p coins for the phone and made the leap.

“I rang her and we started talking. Within two days, I was coming down to lift her for a blind date. Maybe seven months later we were engaged and within a year and a half we were married. We had four children and are married 42 years. I don’t know where those years went to but that is where we met - on a blind date on the buses!”

As his time at Translink comes to an end after five decades, Noel recalls his dad’s own retirement and the two of them walking home arm-in-arm after “a good wee night out”.

“There will be a few tears, I’m sure, but you just have to move on with life,” he said. “My dad loved his golf and I’m going back to it. I’m down at the driving range with one of my sons - he’s heavy into it. When I retire, I’m going to be a dry-weather man. If the sun is shining, I’ll go out. But I’ll spend time with Donna too, and I have plenty of time to do that now.”