ELLSWORTH — When Neil Berthiaume had a bone spur surgically removed from his right foot his high school dreams of becoming a chef went up in flames.

Neil Berthiaume

“Although we have traffic here, it’s nothing like Boston,” the Downeast Transportation bus driver said, seated high on his leather throne above the propane-fueled engine. Berthiaume, also known as “Route 3” to some of the drivers, travels from Ellsworth to Bar Harbor and around Mount Desert Island daily.

Berthiaume’s previous job as an Island Explorer — the seasonal bus — driver prepared him for the coastal trip.

His bus, a 1999 model, skirts the borders of Acadia National Park. As he pushes the vehicle up the hills of Seal Cove, the cooling fans groan so loudly he is forced to pause any conversation until the bus surfs quietly down the hill toward the ocean, hidden by the cliffy forest.

This is what makes his job.

“I tell everybody because I drive on the island, it’s almost like being paid on vacation,” he said.

Driving is a change of pace for Berthiaume, who last worked an office job as a dispatcher for a van service.

He starts his days as early as 5 a.m., but now that the weather has warmed he said his alarm can relax until 5:30. After safety and fluid checks, Berthiaume warms the engine and hits the road by 7.

Berthiaume is one of six drivers for the Downeast Transportation service, but as summer approaches that number will grow and business will pick up.

“I haven’t had it full yet, but I’ve had it close a few times,” he said of his 28-passenger bus. The 3 p.m. trip from Jackson Laboratory is usually his fullest. Otherwise, the rows of seats are relatively desolate. “On a good day I’ll get 20 people on this trip,” he said of his Ellsworth to Bar Harbor run.

In Ellsworth, Downeast Transportation picks up morning commuters behind Marden’s. At 3, there’s an afternoon shuttle to the island from the Ellsworth City Hall parking lot.

As a small sedan in front of Berthiaume bolts 50 miles per hour in the breakdown lane of Route 3 he said, “You see some pretty crazy things, especially when the tourists come up.”

Drivers who chat into their cell phones while navigating are Berthiaume’s pet peeve.

“They’re not paying attention, they really aren’t,” he said. “If my cell phone rings 99 percent of the time I won’t pick up — unless it is my boss.”

When he pulls into his next stop — Downeast Horizons, a place that assists people with disabilities — he stands for the first time of the trip and a smile breaks his mustached face. Berthiaume’s job when the summer bus season halted was to help care for the adults at the center. These are the people, he said, who make his day.

It takes a while for everyone to settle into their seats, but once they do the conversation gets lively in what was, minutes before, a silent bus.

“Who’s driving the bus Friday?” Jeff, a rider who takes the trip from Downeast Horizons to home daily said.

“Bob,” Berthiaume said.

“Who’s Bob?”

“You know Bob.”

“Will he drive the yellow bus?”

“No, this bus.”

“We’ll see,” Mason said, as if a challenge.

“Yeah, we’ll see. What do I say?” the driver asked.

“Relax.”

When the bus empties again, Berthiaume drives toward Bar Harbor to pick up the commuters.

Jackson Lab helps subsidize the Downeast commuter service by pitching in $50,000 annually. “We see it as a way of improving the lives of our employees, making it easier and more pleasant for them to get to work. It’s a bargain these days,” said Joyce Peterson, public information manager for the lab.

Lab commuters pay between $14 and $18 per week for the commuting line depending on how far away they live. The commuter trip from Ellsworth to Bar Harbor gained more than 700 new riders between December 2007 and April 2008, totaling 2,402 riders from the company’s latest figures.

Paul Murphy, general manager of Down East Transportation, said the trips were popular before, but rising gas prices have filled the 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. busses to the point where the company can no longer accept new subscriptions. There is a waiting list.

“We’ve certainly seen a spike in ridership with the spike of gasoline prices,” Murphy said. “The price of gas is a double edge sword — it fills our busses, but it costs us a lot of money”

Jim Beauchaine, a lab animal technician at the lab, snatched his seat last October.

“It’s a lot cheaper,” he said. “It’s economical.”

Beauchaine said he saves at least $30 per week by riding the bus instead of driving to his Aurora home.

“It’s [traffic] going to be horrendous like it is every year, but the thing is, riding the bus, you’re not the one who has to fight it.”

Berthiaume will be pushing their way through the traffic this summer.

For more information and bus schedules for the Downeast bus service, including the Island Explorer which helps tourists and locals get around the Bar Harbor area, visit downeasttrans.org. Roundtrip costs vary between $1 and $5 daily.

See related story "Bus Use on the Rise"...