They were the mothers of the city's transit system.

In 1975, the Yukon Women's Mini-Bus Society was born out of the Yukon Status of Women Council's transit committee. They began the first bus service in the capital city.

More than 30 years later, those women are being honoured with the territory's poster marking Women's History Month.

The poster was unveiled Thursday afternoon at the Yukon Transportation Museum.

Featuring posters of the original two mini-buses the council acquired with a grant from Transport Canada, along with a bus graphic bearing the minibus logo and a schedule from those early days, the poster also outlines the history of the system.

It was a system that was founded on personal service, those gathered for the unveiling heard.

"Many of us fondly remember how the mini-buses provided personal service to riders by dropping them at their door or by stopping anywhere along the road to pick us up when we flagged down the bus," said Marian Horne, the minister responsible for the Women's Directorate.

A list on the early schedule even recommends: "WAVE (wildly) at the bus," before noting the streets on which it would stop anywhere.

Though mini-bus society founder Joyce Hayden couldn't be at the poster unveiling, it didn't stop the crowd gathered from applauding the former NDP cabinet minister for her contribution.

"Many former society members here in Whitehorse and across the country can attest to Joyce's pluck, dedication to the cause and perseverance as the reasons why the mini-bus service became a reality," Horne said.

In a story Hayden wrote a few years ago during labour issues between the transit workers and city management, she recalled the 1970s as a time when few women worked outside their homes. Their husbands often claimed the family's vehicles to get to work, so that left the rest of the family without wheels through the day.

Young moms, children, the elderly, poor and disabled were especially impacted with no bus service while teenagers often hitchhiked to get around the city.

At the time, city council argued transit wasn't needed and would cost to much, arguing what Whitehorse did need was a new recreation centre. In those days, the only such centre was the building the transportation museum currently occupies.

The transit committee was just one of several committees formed out of the women's council when it was formed in 1973.

It took extensive lobbying before the mini-bus society would receive the $80,000 Transport Canada grant to buy the two mini-buses.

"That amount didn't buy a lot of buses or pay for much administration," Hayden wrote. "Fortunately, the original members, many new volunteers, the managers, and the drivers, most of whom were women, were totally committed to make it work."

Eventually, various levels of government agreed to provide funding though much of the system continued to be operated by volunteers. They gamely did everything from washing the buses and doing minor repairs to the accounting.

"Offering part-time, satisfying, well-paying jobs of a non-traditional nature to women was an integral part of the society's mandate," Hayden wrote.

"By introducing the concept of job-sharing and flexible scheduling to the territory, young mothers and older women were given an opportunity to access paid employment."

Joanne Lynzey recalls many long hours of discussions, planning, and convincing nay sayers who questioned how a women could drive a bus in -40 weather that a transit service was indeed possible.

"It was a collective effort," Lynzey wrote in a statement read at the unveiling by women's directorate spokeswoman Brenda Barnes.

The success was due to everyone from those who volunteered to the mechanics to the passengers and many others, and serves as an example of what a group of women can achieve.

By 1977, a review committee comprised of the society and government found the system to be "an extremely successful transit system." It was recommended that an independent transit commission under the city be formed. On July 1, 1978, the commission took over the system.

It was under its stewardship in the early 1980s that former drivers Judy Peach and Corrine Sears began their combined 32 years of work getting Whitehorse residents around the city.

"We had a great time," Peach said after the unveiling.

As the pair began recalling their time with the transit system, stories and memories of past passengers, co-workers and so on flowed into one another, with both women remembering it as the best job they had.

"I miss it terribly," said Peach, who ended her career with the system in 2003 after 20 years' service.

Detours were a fairly common feature of the transit system back in those days as drivers would drop off passengers at their doors if there was a load of groceries or other packages involved.

Peach remembers driving her daughter to the hospital in one case and having to tell the other passengers they'd be making a bit of a change to the route.

The system didn't always adhere to its schedule either, and both Peach and Sears recall honking the horn when regulars weren't at the bus stop in time.

Sometime the drivers ended up having to wake up their riders, whether it be at the beginning or end of the work day. Despite waiting for their regulars, the drivers would try to make it to the next stop on time.

"We just had to drive a little faster," Sears said.

At the time, school bus service in the city was limited. That left the bus drivers to pick up younger kids walking home from school in the cold.

"We didn't leave anybody out in the cold," Sears said.

Along with the kids walking home from school, there was another group the bus drivers watched out for, the pair noted as Peach recalled her then-teenaged daughter getting caught skipping class.

Peach told other drivers to let her know if they saw her daughter out during school hours. It wasn't long before she heard a message over the radio that her daughter had been seen. Checking the time, Peach confirmed her daughter was indeed not where she should have been.

"We all watched out for each other's kids," Sears said.

While Peach and Sears shared laughter as they recalled their years of driving, they also recalled some memories that weren't so great.

Peach remembers one regular passenger breaking down one morning on the bus just after the woman had been told she had cancer. It wasn't long after she passed away.

Another time, Sears punched a co-worker who was a known sex offender.

As she pointed out though, in those days the rules were different and you were more likely to get away with punching co-workers than you would today.

In 1989, both Sears and Peach were still working with the system when it was brought in as a city department and became more of a formal service.

"The rules were fixed," Sears said, adding when that happened, it seemed as though drivers were then supposed to separate their personal feelings from their work.

Transit manager Dave Muir said the service is still very much rooted in that personal experience. While drivers may not be taking passengers to their door, he still knows of those who wait for their regular passengers and take note when someone isn't on the bus.

Before spending a few minutes with the two former drivers, Muir praised the work of the original mini-bus society, noting that if it wasn't for them, he wouldn't be standing there as the city's transit manager.

The system that started as a volunteer organization with an $80,000-grant now operates on a $2-million annual budget with seven routes.

In 2007, Muir said, 416,000 boardings were made on the regular system with 8,000 bookings made through the handy bus system.