On the first day that snow blanketed the Miami Valley, a holiday wish a decade in the making came true for a Greater Dayton RTA driver.
Jackie Nash smiled from ear to ear as she sat behind the wheel of the RTA Holiday bus on Dec. 13.
“I just love Christmas,” Nash said. She sang along to holiday music that played on the bus’s speaker system.
Nash will celebrate her 10th year of service with RTA in February and said every December for the past 10 years she’s wanted to drive that special bus.
“Every year when they’d bring out the holiday bus, I begged and begged to get it,” she said.
As a rotating driver scheduled to whatever route is in need that day, Nash had never been assigned to drive the seasonally-decorated bus.
Garland with lights, candy canes, and even a fully-decorated Christmas tree inside the holiday bus put RTA riders in the holiday spirit. The cheerful bus is something veteran RTA driver Jackie Nash has adored for years.
The history of the holiday bus goes back decades. This year the design and décor of the bus is a collaborative effort between the RTA maintenance and communications departments. It features a large image of Santa holding a cell phone with the Transit app open — a new RTA RideTime feature that allows riders to track their bus live.
At the layover along her route on that snowy afternoon, Nash took time to stretch her legs and snap a selfie of herself with Santa on the outside of the bus.
“I’ll have to tell all my family and friends I finally got to drive the holiday bus,” she said.
