At the Ravelijnstraat bus stop in Steenbergen, Piet is quickly eating an apple in his empty neighborhood bus. A procession of people is walking towards a regular bus that is parked behind Piet. “Passengers for my great colleague”, says the driver with a laugh.
—
According to transport organization Arriva, this is the least used bus line in Brabant: neighborhood bus 214 from Steenbergen to the Anna Jacobapolder in Zeeland. Piet van der Reest (74) has been a volunteer driver of this van for eleven years. “Driving the neighborhood bus is an exemplary function.”
He’s been at work for a few hours when we speak to him. He is busy from seven o’clock in the morning. The ride that Piet now rides is that of 09:05 AM and ends at this stop at 10:10 AM, when the entire route has been completed. “I only had four passengers this morning. Two students and two working people.”
–
“This environment will always attract me.”
“Before this I worked in road construction. But that work became too hard. I wanted to have something to do. If you sit at home after forty years of work, you fall into a hole. I didn’t want that.” So Piet decided to drive the neighborhood bus as a volunteer.
It is not that Piet has to be bored at home. He has four sons, seventeen grandchildren and even a great-grandchild. There is still plenty to do. “I keep the garden, I am also a sexton in a church, I have an aviary with twenty canaries and of course I assist my wife”, Piet sums up.
The bus leaves Steenbergen at a roundabout. Piet does not need navigation, he knows the entire route by heart. Farmland on either side as far as the eye can see. “I enjoy nature. Then look at what an open landscape,” says Piet. “I grew up here, this environment will always attract me.”
–
“You’re still in contact with people, even if there aren’t that many.”
“The work is fun. You are in contact with people, even if there aren’t that many. I can now also be useful”, explains Piet. The local bus will drive towards a roundabout. An elderly gentleman in a white blouse is walking on the bike path on the right. Pete points at him cheerfully. “Look, I respect him now. I always run into him. He is always walking, summer or winter. I’ve just never spoken to him,” said the driver as he exits the roundabout.
–
––
It is mainly very quiet. Not many other cars pass by, the environment is quiet and the radio is on the lowest volume. “Lovely that silence”, Piet sighs with satisfaction. The bus drives over the Slaakbrug, which ensures that we really leave Brabant. “Sometimes I can wave to my son here. He is a skipper and sometimes passes by here.”
–
“Actually, she always waves.”
The local bus stops again at a stop. A public bus stops at the back. “Now wait for someone to transfer from that bus with us. But that almost never happens.”
“Look and here,” says Piet while smiling, “I always wave to my wife.” Piet’s wife waves at him from a kitchen window on the left side of the bus. “Usually she’s there, or she must be busy with something. But actually she always waves,” says the driver cheerfully.
The bus arrives at the terminus ‘de Sluis’. Piet has not picked up any passengers in this direction. “And now the reverse direction again.”
–
“I depend on the bus.”
Halfway through the way back, the improbable happens: someone is waiting at the bus stop. “I do depend on the bus. I work in Steenbergen”, says Chantal (20) who has just got on. She says that she has lived all her life in St. Philipsland where the bus stopped. She holds up her overfull bags: “And with this stuff, cycling isn’t really an option.”
“If I can keep it up, I’d like to keep doing the job for a long time to come. Being a driver is also an exemplary function, you can’t do crazy things behind the wheel,” says Piet.
The church tower of Steenbergen looms up again in the distance. The local bus drives back into the built-up area and after navigating a short distance through a residential area, it stops again at the starting point. “So, right on time.”
–
–—
