Long-time Albany Transwa ticketing officer Janet Meyers retires after 27 years to embark on her own adventure

After spending close to 30 years helping the people of Albany travel around WA from her position behind the ticket desk at Albany’s Transwa Booking Centre, Janet Meyers is retiring to go off on her own adventures.

Ms Meyers is working her last day as a ticketing agent at the Albany Transwa bus terminal on Thursday, bringing to an end 27 years behind the ticket desk.

During that time, she said she had seen ticketing change from when she used to write out the tickets herself to a computerised system.

Over the years, Ms Meyers has come to see some of her customers as more like friends or members of her family.

Several years ago, one of her regular customers moved to Scotland and before he left, he told her if she was ever in the country, she should visit him — so she did.

“I went and knocked on his door — he didn’t know I was coming,” she said.

“It took him a little bit to realise who I was because I was not behind the desk and not in my uniform.

“He said ‘I don’t believe you actually came’ and I said ‘I told you I would’.

“And he said ‘Everybody says they will and they never do’.

“We went down to the pub for lunch, and I told him we were going to do a pub crawl, but he was a bit too old for that.”

With her 70th birthday approaching on Saturday, Ms Meyers said she had decided it was time to retire and embark on her own journey. She will be leaving Albany straight after she finishes her final shift on Thursday, flying to NSW early on Friday morning.

Then she will head to Singapore on a family holiday, with plans to visit the UK and US later.

Transwa general manager Tim Woolerson farewelled Ms Meyers with a bouquet of flowers and a card on Tuesday afternoon.

She has also received flowers from other Transwa workers she has met over the years, some only briefly, which Mr Woolerson said showed how fondly she would be remembered.

He said she was a “wonderful” employee who had been a mentor to other workers, and had left a lasting impression on colleagues and customers.

“I’ve often sat back and just watched how Janet approaches people, and they’re more friends than actual customers,” he said.