Cindy Kassab is one of the most decorated bus operators in TriMet’s history, with 43 years behind the wheel, she’s the longest-tenured active driver these days.

To put that feat in perspective, TriMet is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

That fact alone is hard to wrap your mind around, Kassab admits, but she’s still enjoying the job so much she’s considering sticking around until she hits the half-century mark of her own in a few years.

“If I’m not ready, I’m not going anywhere,” she predicted.

Last week, Kassab became just the 10th current employee to receive the agency’s Gold Grand Master Award. To achieve it, operators have to first register 30 separate safety awards given to employees who work at least 1,960 hours in a year with no unexcused absences, no citations or warnings from supervisors, no preventable accidents and a slew of other safety guidelines.

Kassab said she’s been fixated on this goal for the past five years.

Despite her remarkable longevity and impressive safety record, the 66-year-old has a secret: She’s not looking forward to next week’s potential weather forecast, which carries the suggestion of snow.

That’s why the longtime driver with all the seniority in the world uses that leverage to opt out of her customary Line 43, which runs along Taylors Ferry through hilly Southwest Portland, once the winter arrives. “Portland’s too hilly,” Kassab explained.

It’s not that Kassab doesn’t like the cold. An accomplished photographer with her own personal website and portfolio, she’s twice been to Antarctica, and fell in love with nature photography in 2012 on a trip to Alaska’s Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

Her photography skills date back decades, too. Thirty years ago, The Oregonian wrote about Kassab’s exploits as a photographer. She said at the time that three formative high school years spent in the Swiss Alps brought her a love of photography, the outdoors and skiing.

An excerpt from a 1989 story about Cindy Kassab and her photography skills.

Decades later, Kassab is still more an adventurer than anything. At 40, Kassab said she picked up ice skating and briefly combined that hobby with another one one – juggling.

She’s since given that up, because she doesn’t want to fall.

The next adventure keeps her motivated to keep showing up to work, and to keep signing up for overtime shifts.

In an agency with an estimated 1,600 bus and rail operators, there’s a variety of styles.

Kassab is the conversational type. She likes talking to riders, though that’s become more challenging in recent years, as everyone has their faces – and ears – fixated on their phones.

Things have changed.

An image at Bosque del Apache in 2018, south of Albuquerque, taken by Cindy Kassab.

When she started back in 1976, “People would talk with each other,” she said. “Now you have a full bus,” she said, and it’s as silent as can be. “Oh my gosh, am I driving to a mortuary?”

If passengers aren’t interested in talking, Kassab just gets to thinking. About Alaska, about Antarctica or her next adventures. About the sunlight coming through the trees on Taylors Ferry.

She wants to go to Trinidad and Tobago, and Peru, and New Zealand, maybe Mongolia to see horseback riders and their golden eagles.

Some of the changes she’s seen are definitely for the better. Female operators weren’t common when she first started. Some men would say terrible things and it got to her. Those things don’t get to her anymore.

When she gets problem passengers, Kassab lets it slide.

“Well, at least I don’t have to live with them 24 hours a day,” she thinks.

She said that mindset is key for anyone who’s thinking of working at TriMet, or anywhere, really.

“Attitude is everything,” she said. “You just can’t let the negative get you down.”

In the meantime, she’ll keep driving.

“I love driving, period,” she said, though she has the same gripes as other Portland-area residents about the growing traffic. “It’s like having your office outside.”

In fact, the traffic could ultimately be her undoing. Kassab said she loves the bus-only lanes that are spreading around town, but they aren’t everywhere yet.

“I realize I get paid for sitting in traffic,” she said, “but I don’t know, if it gets really super bad or if we start having winters like we do on the East Coast…” she trails off. That might signal it’s time to retire.

But she won’t be finished taking photos.

If you’re one of her regulars on the Line 43, you may be lucky enough to see her photos firsthand. She often brings an iPad to show them off.

“I love to capture God’s wonders and share his beauty,” she said, before adding another one of her sayings. “The Lord loves to decorate.”

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen

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