After 38 years, GoRaleigh’s senior driver finishes his final route
As Monroe Watson pulled his bus into the GoRaleigh yard off Poole Road on Thursday afternoon, about two dozen mechanics, dispatchers and other coworkers were waiting at the curb.
“What is this, a fire drill?” Watson deadpanned, just before the crowd burst into applause.
They had come out to wish Watson well on his final day behind the wheel of a GoRaleigh bus. After 38 years driving for the city, he was not only the senior driver but was also known as one of the safest, carrying passengers more than 3 million miles without an accident.
Watson, who just turned 62, had driven tractor-trailer trucks a bit when a Capital Area Transit supervisor he met at a cookout talked him in to driving a bus.
“He said be down there 5:15 Tuesday morning,” he said. “And I’ve been there ever since.”
On his first day as a trainee, Watson met a passenger named Marion. She became his wife nine months later. In 37 years of marriage, Marion was up with him at 4 every morning to see that he got to work by ten til five.
“Never missed a day,” he said, referring to her dedication.
Watson’s last route Thursday was the 15L, the Trawick Connector, a 45-minute loop around northeast Raleigh that begins and ends at the Wal-Mart at New Hope Road and New Bern Avenue. Over the years, he’s driven all over town and watched the city grow.
“When I started driving, they didn’t have none of this out here,” he said, turning from eight-lane-wide Capital Boulevard, lined with businesses, onto Buffalo Road.
The route he drove the longest was the No. 4, between downtown and Rex Hospital. In 11 years, he got to where regular riders didn’t need to ring the bell to request a stop; he knew.
“They get used to me; I get used to them,” he said. “If they’re not out there at the stop, I know what street to look down to see if they’re coming.”
Watson says he’ll miss the passengers most of all in his retirement. He doesn’t expect to miss getting up at 4 a.m., though he’s not sure how long it will take him to adjust his sleeping habits. During Christmas vacation, he still found himself awake at 4.
Watson says there are two kinds of bus drivers: Those who are born to do it and those who are taught. He was born to it, he says, and he shares the courtesies and protocols that come naturally to him with other drivers.
His mantra is safety.
“Take your time. See the day through,” he said. “Don’t just pull out. Look around.”
Drivers with Watson’s experience are rare, said Marie Parker, GoRaleigh’s general manager. With his retirement, the new senior driver has about 31 years behind the wheel, and only about a dozen of the agency’s 210 drivers have 20 years or more.
Finding and keeping drivers has grown more difficult in recent years, Parker said. In a tight job market, people with a commercial driver’s license have lots of options.
“It’s just so difficult to find people with experience,” she said. “It’s amazing to have someone on for 38 years.”
Parker and other GoRaleigh employees joined Watson on his final loop on the 15L. Throughout his shift Thursday, fellow drivers called out to him over the radio, wishing him well.
“This is your last day holding the wheel?” one said as he pulled out of the Wal-Mart parking lot. “How does it feel?”
Watson said it felt good. He’s ready to spend more time with his two grandchildren and travel with his wife. He’ll continue to do home improvement work and sound engineering for musical performances that he’s always done on the side.
Still, as Watson turned on to Poole Road to return his bus to the GoRaleigh yard for the last time, he got misty.
“You doing all right up there?” Parker called up to him. “You need a Kleenex?”
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he replied.
This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
