After several years driving a school bus and carrying people across country as a motorcoach operator, Ken Benzel moved to the Twin Cities and started a new chapter in his career in transportation. “I’d seen all kinds of bus companies, but this one (Metro Transit) was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the one,’” Benzel said. “When you think of transit, you think of Metro Transit.” Benzel started as a part-time operator out of South Garage and retired from the same garage, as an assistant transportation manager, 30 years later.

Benzel enjoyed driving, of course, but he also appreciated the chance to leave work behind at the end of each day. “That was the best part – no matter what happened that day, when you pulled into the garage, let out the air and closed the door that was it,” he said. “The job never followed you home.” Still, Benzel aspired to do more, and after 12 years as an operator he became a full-time garage instructor. Later, excited to be a part of bringing light rail to the Twin Cities, Benzel became a rail supervisor, working in the control center and in the field and training the first group of train operators. Benzel said that period of his career was especially rewarding because it brought a motivated group of people together toward a common cause. Like others, Benzel worked nights and weekends when trains were allowed to operate on the railroad before opening. And then: “Opening day was huge, but the next day was absolutely thrilling,” Benzel remembered. “To see platforms filled with people going to work, going to school, was very, very satisfying.”

Benzel finished his career as an assistant transportation manager, supporting operators at the Heywood, Nicollet, East Metro and South garages. Coming back to bus, he said, was a fitting final chapter because it allowed him to spend time with many of the people he’d started with and who had become close friends.

In retirement, Benzel planned to spend more time hunting, fishing, traveling and flying.