ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9702030051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
THE RED LINE has ferried people between Hanging Rock and Hollins College since August 1995. In its final day, it carried five passengers.
The fluorescent lights cast a cold, hard sheen on the room where William Grogan sat filling out paperwork at 6:05 Friday morning.
"It's going to be a beautiful day, isn't it?" another bus driver said as he walked by.
His voice was muffled with sleep and irony, but Grogan ignored the irony and replied with a firm "It sure is." He stepped out into the downtown Roanoke parking lot and climbed aboard a van that sat puttering in the darkness.
Grogan and his brother, Owen, have driven the Red Line since it began in August 1995. He made his rounds for the last time Friday.
The Red Line was the only bus line supported by Roanoke County not limited to senior adults and disabled persons, but it hasn't been a huge success. The 30-mile route starts at Hanging Rock and goes to Hollins College via Valley View Mall, then doubles back. It delivered only 52 passengers in December, and that was a good month.
With the federal government cutting back on spending for public transportation, Roanoke County officials decided to cut corners. The Red Line was the first to go.
It was operated by Unified Human Services Transportation Systems, better known as RADAR because of its former name, Roanoke Area Dial A Ride. The Red Line had an annual budget of $47,000; $8,000 of it local money.
The digital clock on the dash glowed 6:27 a.m. as Grogan pulled into his first stop at the Orange Market in Hanging Rock.
"I'm two minutes late, but there's no one here anyway," he said. "I have never picked anyone up here."
The next four stops were the same. As he drove on, the murky gray mist turned to pale blue, then a dense white that softened the silhouettes of trees and telephone poles. Still no passengers in sight.
"I have quite a few of these days, but we have to make the run, so I keep going in a circle," Grogan said. "Sometimes you like to have company, people to laugh and talk to you."
At the Hollins post office, a man rapped his knuckles on the hood of the van in a friendly, wordless greeting as he walked past.
Grogan's baseball cap reads "Don't Ask," but his gentle smile and soft, furry voice make him approachable. He worked for Norfolk & Western, like his father, until the railroad closed its Roanoke freight station. He joined his brother at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center until he retired. When his wife died a year later, the house was too quiet to spend his days there alone.
"It was like the walls were caving in on me," he said.
From 1986 until 1995, his shifts depended on which route needed a driver. The Red Line gave him a regular schedule. For the past month, his brother has been on sick leave, so Grogan drove all four runs every day, starting at 6:10 a.m. and ending at 5:50 p.m.
At 7:06 a.m., Grogan got his first customer. Scott Kuhn was waiting at the Hollins College stop.
A regular Valley Metro bus route with a stop at Peters Creek and Williamson roads was canceled two days after Kuhn moved into northern Roanoke County. He began taking a cab to Valley View, where he can get another bus, until he learned about the Red Line a month ago.
"I really got caught unaware when this happened," he said. "I'll just have to live skin-tight until I find another place." He has decided to move back into the city rather than fork out $40 a day for taxi service to his job at the Hotel Roanoke, he said. The Red Line round trip was $3.
At the mall, Kuhn is replaced by Virginia Johnson and Dennis Banks, who are on their way to work at the Holiday Inn-Airport.
"One of my girlfriends is going to have to pick me up Monday," Johnson said.
She and Grogan exchanged pleasantries, inquiring about family members and their health.
"He's not only a bus driver, he's a friend, too," Johnson said. "We're going to miss him dearly."
"We'll keep in touch with each other, OK?" Grogan said as he pulled up to the hotel. Johnson shook his hand and climbed out.
Although it yielded only three passengers, the first run turned out to be Grogan's busiest of the day. He made his second morning tour without a single rider. In his two afternoon runs, he took Kuhn home from work, then delivered a Hollins College student from the Netherlands and an adult-home resident to the mall.
The radio was playing Smokey Robinson, B.B. King and Barry White as Grogan drove back to the RADAR station in the twilight.
"I just wish more people had started riding it, because we need the service," he said. "I think I'm surprised that it went on as long as it did. The public cannot say they didn't give it a chance because it's been out here a long time."
He'll be back on a floating schedule next week.
"It hasn't hit me yet," he said. "It probably won't till Monday. I'll probably wish I was back here again."
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. 1. William Grogan startsby CNBthe route at 6:10 a.m. in Hanging Rock. No one rode the van in the
first hour. 2. William Grogan retires the van, but it's not his last
drive. He'll be on a floating schedule next week. color. 3. Virginia
Johnson and Dennis Banks have taken the Red Line to work for more
than a year. Johnson said she's going to miss Grogan; he's a friend
as well as her bus driver.