Jory Ackerman was applying for a job at an aluminum factory when someone suggested he put his name in across the street at the Metropolitan Transit Commission. On a whim, he applied. Soon after, he began as a part-time bus operator at the Heywood Garage. Ackerman would go on to spend the next 30 years as a bus and train operator.

At the start, Ackerman was a little uncertain about his new career path – the bus “felt about as wide as it did long,” he said – but he enjoyed the relative freedom, interacting with passengers and became increasingly confident behind the wheel. Throughout the 1990s, he worked out of what was then known as the Shingle Creek Garage and drove Route 10, becoming familiar with many regular passengers. Later, he spent several years driving routes 4 and 12.

In late 2004, Ackerman joined a class of 13 bus operators who were trained to support the expanded Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line that had opened earlier in the year. For Ackerman, it was a return to somewhat familiar territory. Prior to working in transit, he spent a decade with the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railroad operating a swing bridge that carried trains over the Minnesota River, maintaining trestles and doing other odd jobs. The transition to light rail meant adjusting to a stricter environment, but Ackerman found comfort in the routine. “I found driving the train to be very relaxing, actually,” he said. Ackerman spent his entire time as a train operator on the Hiawatha line, which later became the METRO Blue Line.

When he retired in mid-2020, Ackerman said he would miss his co-workers but that he looked forward to “living out the dream of becoming a beach bum with no responsibility, no rules and no briefings.”