Nick Vardos started the job in May 2004. Photo: James Coleman.
You might think of bus driving as more something for the side, to help bring home a little more bacon, put food on the table, etcetera. Not exactly career-making stuff.
But not for Nick Vardos – and it turns out he’s far from alone.
The 63-year-old started driving for Transport Canberra – or ACTION as it was then – in May 2004, fresh from driving trucks between the ACT and Batemans Bay. This makes 2024 his 20th year in the job.
“You’re in here for the long haul because it’s such a good job,” he says.
“There are guys here who have been here for over 30 years, and lots and lots over 20.”
The public transport agency’s latest recruitment drive, with positions available for permanent part-timers, comes to a close today (Sunday, 18 August).
Nick has made the decision to retire in about six months’ time, but if there’s one nugget of wisdom he’d pass onto newbies it’s that no day is ever the same. Twenty years is long enough to see some things.
“I could write a book about them,” he muses.
“The funniest times are leading up to Christmas and New Year, when everyone’s in party mode and the antics they get up to on the bus – a bit of pole dancing, swinging on the rafters – they just let loose. It’s nothing malicious or hurtful, just people having fun.
“There have also been a few scary moments, with people under the influence, whether it’s drugs or alcohol, or mental health issues – not too much towards me, but other people on the bus.
Nick prefers the challenge of the articulated buses. Photo: James Coleman.
“Yeah, there’s never a dull moment on the buses.”
Nick was born in Tumut to Greek parents, and raised in Batlow with a future in his family’s café and supermarket lying before him.
“And I did it for a while, but the economic climate changed and things got pretty tough, so I got out of it.”
He moved to Canberra in 1968, and worked a number of jobs as a gym trainer and owner and then a security guard with Ansett Airways.
On the side, he also forayed into the local rally scene as a co-driver for several events (he’s good friends with Canberra’s Neal Bates and family).
“I did actually enquire about a job with ACTION, and knocked on the door here at the Belconnen depot in 1984, but they said they’d just put 10 drivers on and told me to come back in 12 months, but I never did.”
It was only when his wife Catherine saw an ad in 2004 that Nick submitted his application.
“I was successful and, yeah, have never looked back.”
With a home in Weston Creek, he started out at the Tuggeranong bus depot before relocating to Belconnen after seven years. His current full-time shift starts between 6 and 7 each morning and winds up at between 4 and 5 pm.
“It’s a very flexible job – you can stay casual, you can do split shifts, you can do days or nights.”
He says he’s never been one for the desk, and enjoys “being out and about and meeting people” for a living.
“I normally pick up a shift and sit on it, so I get to know my passengers and it makes a better day. And I get on really well with the school kids.”
Life is never dull when you are at the wheel. Photo: James Coleman.
Nick drove the school bus past the Lake Ginninderry College for more than a year, and became such fast friends with the kids “a lot of them cried when the network changed”.
Another time, a young woman wearing a tight wraparound dress (and little else) boarded the bus at Gungahlin with a strange request.
“She asked me: ‘Do you mind if I swing from the overhead poles? I’ve always wanted to do it’.'”
Nick warned her “it’s a little bit dangerous” and “I don’t want them to snap and you to go crashing to the floor”, but the woman insisted she’d be okay.
“All the way to the city, she was just doing acrobatic moves from the poles like it was a show,” Nick recalls.
On arrival at the Civic interchange, a group of guys from further back in the bus also disembarked and on the way past the driver’s cab, thanked Nick for “the best bus ride we’ve ever had”.
“Of course, I was driving – I had to keep my eyes on the road,” Nick adds.
“Totally professional.”
Transport Canberra bus operator positions are open for applications on the ACT Government website until today, 18 August.
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