What will happen to Takhini Transport is a matter still to be decided, says Pat Jamieson.

Jamieson has been running the school bus business for her husband, Ernie Jamieson, and his business partner, Said Secerbegovic.

Ultimately, it will be up to them to decide what to do with the fleet, and it will probably take several more weeks before there's anything definitive, she told the Star this week.

The busing contract was officially awarded to Standard Bus of Calgary. (See story below.)

For Jamieson personally, it's the end of an era she thoroughly enjoyed, though it had its moments. Chief among them was the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when two Korean Air Boeing 747s were re-routed to Whitehorse under the escort of fighter jets, as New York's Twin Towers burned and collapsed.

On the whole, however, the busing business is a special business, says the 61-year-old general manager, who drove school bus back in the days when Watson Lake Bus Lines consisted of three buses.

Since winning the initial contract in 2001, edging out Diversified Transport for the first time in decades, the company has amassed a rolling stock of 64 buses.

"I love the school busing industry,” says Jamieson. "I think there are not enough people working that like what they are doing, but I like what I do.

"I like kids . . . I like watching the drivers do their jobs; it's not perfect, but we strive to make it perfect.”

Jamieson recalls the days when Watson Lake Bus Lines, parent company to Takhini Transport, provided the local school busing and the rural community and coach service for the Cantung and Cassiar mines.

When the company won most of the 10 community contracts in the spring of 2001, including the Whitehorse contract, its fleet went from three to 43 by the end of August.

"And three weeks later, we had 9-11.”

Jamieson recalls how all the buses had finished the morning run, and were all back in the yard up at the Kulan industrial park. The drivers had all left, she says.

Then came the first call from one of the schools inquiring about an evacuation plan.

News of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was everywhere. But only as the morning wore on did the word start to surface about the possibility two Korean jets having been hijacked, and that they'd been ordered to re-route to Whitehorse.

A second call came in from another school.

"Then NormaLee (Craig) decided to call the (Education) department to see what was going on,” Jamieson says.

"There was going to be a mass evacuation, and all the kids had to be bused to Elijah Smith (Elementary School).”

Not everybody was available by phone, so Craig, her operational manager, put the word out on the local radio stations.

"And every driver who heard the message came back.”

It was a day she'll not forget, says Jamieson.

For other reasons, she continues, providing service for the 2007 Canada Winter Games was also quite memorable.

Daily busing schedules were posted, though changes were frequent as circumstances changed, she says.

Jamieson told her drivers it would be the drivers who hung around the shop after their scheduled route who'd be picking up the extra work, which came in often.

"So what we thought we were doing, we were always doing something different, and it was -35, and the biathloners were out there in their tights, and they needed some buses.

"Honestly, it was the most fun.”

Over the years, suggests Jamieson, there are any number of stories, but when staff sit around talking, it's 9-11 and the Games that rise to the tops of people's most vivid memories.

Jamieson says when they won the contract in 2001, somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of Diversified's employees applied for work, and 95 per cent of those were hired.

It's likely the same sort of opportunities with Standard Bus will present themselves to the 60 or so Takhini drivers and other staff, though there's always a nudge of uncertainty in these cases, she says.

"I am not speaking on their behalf,” says Jamieson. "They have expressed those concerns, and the same concerns I am sure they expressed when Watson Lake Bus Lines was the successful tenderer. It's an unknown.”

Jamieson says if called upon, she'll certainly do what they can to help, though she insists Takhini Transport staff have their own skill sets to stand on.

As for the herself, she's not sure.

It might be that she's just been forced to retire – or maybe not.

"You don't know what is around the corner,” says Jamieson. "As someone once said, ‘Every time one door closes, another one opens up.'

"So we will see.”