Bus driver 'gutted' to be retiring after 60 years

A bus driver said he is "gutted" to be retiring after serving the same routes for 60 years.

Jimmy Kewley, from Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, started working as a conductor aged 18 before he was old enough to get a license to drive at 21.

Now, aged 78, he said he was left "devastated" after his doctor told him he had a heart condition as he would have to give up the job he loved.

“I knew once my doctor had written on the sick note 'suspected half failure'," he said.

"I said to her, 'that will get me finished on the job'. I'm absolutely gutted, I really am. I wanted to carry on driving forever."

Jimmy, a great-great-grandfather, had started work at Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead aged 16, but left to work on the buses "as it paid more".

After three years as a conductor, he passed his bus driving test at 21.

"I carried on conducting for a few months until the licence came through," he said.

"I came in one day, and [the manager] said to me, 'your licence is here, you're on the front'."

The buses at the time were run by Birkenhead Corporation Transport.

"The old buses... we thought they were good buses at the time, but compared with today, it's no comparison. Now it’s just point and go," he said.

He said he had "never encountered any problems with passengers" and had come to know the routes and passengers so well that he would on occasion wait a little longer if he was expecting someone to get on board.

"I've actually waited at stops for regular customers," he said. He recalled how he once waited a few minutes after he was concerned when a regular didn't show up.

"I ended up going a couple of minutes late," he said.

"And then when I saw them the next week, I said, 'I was waiting for you last week' and he said 'oh, I was on my holidays'."

Jimmy said he had been sad to see more people using cars over the years.

"One of the things that has stuck in my mind is the number of people that used to get on the buses, and I now see driving cars," he said.

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