“For those of you getting off at the Ikenberry, make sure to say hello to all his relatives! Say hello to his two wacky uncles, Frikenberry and Oooooooberry! His two brothers, Huckleberry and Boisenberry and his cute, little niece Strawberry!”

Mark Hutchison’s voice booms down the long, gray corridor of the 22 Illini, catching the attention of quiet passengers glued to their phones, just as the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus comes to a stop. Hutchison, who has been driving and announcing arrival stops on the 22 and 220 Illini since 2012, said he found his passion after a long list of previous jobs — including being a chef, construction clean-up crew member and working at a graveyard.

“It just fits my personality, because I have a fun personality and I can be that on a bus,” Hutchison said. “Working here I get to talk to people, be silly every day and just have fun.”

Hutchison, 45, has been driving for C-U MTD since April 2012, and until January, operated the Illini route from 6:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. After changing routes to the 6 Orange, which loosely follows University Avenue between Champaign and Urbana, Hutchison now typically drives from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., providing a change of pace in comparison to the campus routes.

“Daytime has a lot more people going to work and being a lot more serious, so during my daytime routes I’m not as silly or goofy,” he said. “I’m a little more serious — trying to recognize people are trying to get where they want to go and helping them.”

After years of announcing everything from “Next stop” in strange mannerisms to “Next stop — the library where Professor Plum did it with the lead pipe,” looking back, Hutchison said it was one night in the fall of 2012 that he began announcing. 

“I had to do something to figure out how to keep myself focused and awake,” he said. “Remembering what stop was next by announcing it helped me stay awake so it made my job easier.”

The variation between day and night shifts makes a difference to drivers, according to Hutchison. 

He said he had a lot of fun on late night routes, which normally run between the hours of 6:30 p.m. to 3 a.m., because of the variety of students and everybody’s loose moods.

“I was dealing with a lot of different personalities and at a lot of different times of the day,” he said. “You get the kids that are going out drinking and the kids coming home from drinking, you get the ones that are studying and the ones coming home from dinner.”

However, Hutchison has found a happy medium and another reason to make the most of his days. Through the Orange line, he has the ability to get to know his customers more, because he tends to see them on a daily basis, which gives him more of an opportunity to get to know them.

A bus driver encounters numerous people throughout a year, some memorable and some not as much, but Hutchison said he definitely has regulars. 

“They look forward to seeing me, and when I miss a couple days they ask me, ‘Where were you? How’ve you been?,’” he said.

From a marketing perspective, Jan Kijowski, marketing manager for MTD, sees the influence Hutchison’s enthusiasm has throughout the community and riders. 

“We really love it when our operators are outgoing and gregarious,” she said. “We think it humanizes the operator because then they’re not just a machine sitting behind the wheel.” 

Kijowski said approximately a minimum of 7,000 new people ride the bus each year — the majority are freshman from the University. Some students still remember the first time they rode Hutchison’s bus.

Alan David, senior in LAS, said he met Hutchison his sophomore year during a night ride on the 220 Illini.

“He’s a lot different from the other bus drivers. I was with a bunch of people and we were all laughing. He made riding the bus pretty fun — it wasn’t boring as usual,” David said. “He exaggerated a lot of the stuff he would say and was really enthusiastic. He’d say things like, ‘All aboard!’ and make a lot of references to Harry Potter.” 

MTD bus drivers have a great reputation for their customer service and Hutchison is a prime example, according to Kijowski. She said bus drivers are many things, but MTD prides itself on being attentive to its customers.

“They drive a bus, in traffic, in weather, safely, carefully, on time, all while giving good customer service. There’s a list of things to do and they do it great,” she said. “Our operators are second to none in the country.”

While the outside conditions may vary from season to season, students always took notice when Hutchison drove. 

“He’s always very upbeat,” said Bidisha Roy, junior in LAS. “If I’m in a good mood then I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this is great, this is a great guy.’ Especially if he’s bringing energy to the end of my day.”

Hutchison said the compliments help motivate him to keep an optimistic view on his everyday life, because life is filled with ups and downs.

“It’s a bowl of cherries, and sometimes you get the pits,” he said. “If you can keep looking at the positive side of things, you get through life, so that the bad things aren’t quite as bad, because you’ve found something good in it.”

Hutchison said he plans on sticking around for quite some time, because of the pure enjoyment he gets from his job.

“They’re going to have to kick me out of the seat, because I am not going anywhere,” he said. “One thing I can tell you through all my years of experience is you gotta find a job where you’re able to enjoy yourself, able to have fun, because if you’re not going to have fun at all then you’re actually doing work and nobody wants to work.”

Jasmine can be reached at [email protected].