Bus driver still doing rounds on Christmas Day
A SINGLE bus snakes through the empty streets of Manchester on Christmas Day, ferrying passengers between the airport and the city centre.
The number 43, the only bus running in the region, makes its usual trip along the Wilmslow Road corridor. It’s the busiest bus route in Europe, but it falls silent on this one day of the year.
Adam Kinsella, from Wythenshawe, is one of only four Stagecoach drivers making the rounds to pick up holidaymakers and partygoers who would otherwise be stranded.
And the 34-year-old, who worked as an infantry soldier before becoming a driver six years ago, says he’s fine working the shift as his kids are with their mum for the day.
“I don’t mind working Christmas Day because truthfully, I’ve got nothing better to do. I’m not gonna see my kids and I’ve only got my mum and dad here. I’ve not been with the boys’ mum for several years. (Christmas) is only ever really about the kids,” he says.
Adam will celebrate with his three boys, Kaiden, 12, Logan, eight, and Harry, five, when he has a bit of time off after Christmas.
But for now he’s content with providing a service for people who need to travel around the city when everything else is shut.
“There are some people who don’t drive and there’s no other means for them to get about”, he says, matterof-factly.
His life as a bus driver is worlds away from his previous job as a guardsman for the British Army.
He enrolled at the age of 19, and went on tours in some of the most dangerous war zones in the world serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
He loved his life in the army and the camaraderie that came with it, but cuts to the military budget meant he was made redundant, along with many of his friends, in 2012.
“I was gutted to be honest. I didn’t want to leave. I think about 50 lads and women from my battalion got made redundant”, he says.
He decided to become a bus driver when his friend, who works for Stagecoach, suggested it.
Unexpectedly, he found driving the bus for the first time was more daunting than flying out to warzones during his army days.
“I was more nervous starting this than I was getting on that plane going out to places. Honestly, you get that geared up for doing something. But this was completely new, out of my comfort zone. I was driving a big vehicle, and people don’t know that you are new”, he says.
Six years on and he’s really comfortable in his role, finding pleasure in driving around the streets of his hometown, having a laugh with the old ladies who come on every day.
“You always get people who stand and have a chat with you, that’s one of the good things about the job. It just breaks the day up a bit.”