A RESPECTED bus driver and trade unionist has retired after 40 years.

Mohinder Singh Bains has been a familiar face on bus routes throughout Huddersfield for four decades.

And he has been a dedicated Transport and General Workers' Union shop steward and, from 1996, branch chairman.

Mr Bains, 65, of Harefield Park, Birkby, has many memories as a conductor and driver of buses and the old trolley-buses.

He remembers once, in the late 60s, he stopped a bus outside the Fartown police box, when a late night gang of rowdy passengers en route to Brackenhall, became difficult to deal with.

"I remember one policeman's helmet getting knocked off in the scuffle and rolling under a seat. The lad was in court the following Monday and was fined £5 for knocking the helmet," said Mr Bains.

He was born in India and came to Britain in 1962. He started work with the old Huddersfield Corporation as a conductor in 1963.

He became a driver a year later and was elected a shop steward in 1974.

He also served as a trustee in the Yorkshire Rider Employee Ownership plan from January, 1990, to April, 1994, when Badgerline (now First Group) bought the company.

Branch secretary Ken Farrington said "MS, as he is affectionately known, has been an outstanding servant to the TGWU. He has gained the respect of hundreds of bus drivers and depot staff who he has represented over the years with his fairness and dedication to the job, especially in what has been a difficult period since de-regulation of the industry in 1986."

Mr Bains, who is married to Gurcharn, has two daughters and a son and three grandchildren. He plans to spend the first part of his retirement visiting relatives in Canada.

He was presented with a silver salver from both bus company First and the union to mark his service.