Start your applications: TransLink recruiting hundreds of bus drivers

TransLinkis kicking off a huge recruitment driveas its bus system in Metro Vancouver expands over the next year.

With four new B-Line routes opening up alongside continuing network expansion, the transit authority is planning to hire 525 new bus drivers, having already brought in 470 last year.

About 250 new drivers are hired in a regular year, according toTransLink.

"We've got one of the largest service expansions in our history," said TransLink spokesperson Chris Bryan.

'Magic combination'

Bryan said finding theright people can be tricky, so the authority wants to attract as many applicants as possible.

"Certainly, it's not for everybody. It takes a particular kind of person," he said.

"You have to have that magic combination, I guess, of having great customer service focus, really like people, but also be committed to safety and also like driving and be really good at it, as well."

Susan Mussche just started driving forTransLink in the past six months, and said it's going really well for her.

"It's a great job," said Mussche. "It's really well paid. It feels empowering being able to drive something so big.

"A lot of times, I drive back to the yard and I'm surprised by myself that I'm driving the bus, especially 60-footers," she said. "Yes, queen of the road."

Ashley Springer got started driving buses about six years ago after some driver friends got him interested. Springer admitted he was secretly a "bus geek"as a kid.

"The way kids look at cop cars, fire trucks or fighter planes, I was looking at buses that way. Plain and simple," he said.

Springer said he was taking his previous job home with him at the end of the day, and it's nice to just disconnect after a day of driving. He said the region-wide free transit you get as a TransLinkdriver is a pretty nice perk ofthe job.

Challenges of the job

Bryan, Mussche and Springer all agree there's a certain type of stress to the job. You have to manage heavy traffic, grumpy ridersand be able to steer a very big vehicle through the city.

Mussche and Springer saidthe biggest trick to handling angry customers is just to smile.

"You're going to deal with some frustrated people from time to time and you have to be able to separate yourself from it," said Bryan.

He said new recruits don't need a special driver's licence they're put through a six-week training course that gets them an air brake ticketand a class 2 or class 4 licence.

According to TransLink, about 85 per cent of people who start the training go on to work for the transit authority,which now has about 3,500 people driving buses.

Follow Rafferty Baker on Twitter: @raffertybaker