Project Action bus driver Ernest (Shuby) DeGrilla and Superman have a few things in common. Mr. DeGrilla?s red bus travels faster than a speeding bullet (within the speed limit), takes corners like a locomotive, and is able to carry several elderly people in a single bound.

For many senior citizens, the people at Project Action really are superheroes, saving the elderly from lives spent stuck at home watching paint peel, waiting and hoping that a family member or friend might come and take them somewhere.

Since Project Action put the red bus in operation nine months ago, it has provided 1,200 rides to 175 senior citizens and 20 physically handicapped individuals.

They also have a blue bus that takes rest home residents and seniors groups on outings. There is a third bus, but Project Action is waiting for funds to bring it into operation.

On Monday reporter Jessie Moniz spent a couple of hours on the red bus to get a feel for what Project Action is really about.

That morning the bus was filled with Westmeath Residential and Nursing Home residents who were on their way into town to pay bills and do a bit of shopping. The bus seats 12 people and has one wheelchair space.

Senior citizen Sheena Franklin said she was happy to use the bus, because the walk from Westmeath into town was dangerous since there are no sidewalks along the way. The heavy traffic on Bermuda?s roads frightens many older people.

?The service is wonderful,? she said. ?I am going to the Woman?s Shop and then the library.?

Other passengers were going to treat themselves to a new dress, to the bank or to doctors? appointments at the hospital.

The service is convenient, but other advantages include fresh scenery, gossip, refreshments, and of course Mr. DeGrilla who drives more than 160 miles a day.

?He?s wonderful,? one eighty-something said with a girlish giggle.

?He just makes the whole thing,? said another passenger.

Unfortunately, every Superman has his kryptonite. On this day, Mr. DeGrilla?s downfall was a broken bus step. When the bus pulled up outside the library to let some passengers off, Mr. DeGrilla jumped out to help each one out of the bus.

It was then that he discovered the faulty step designed to bridge the gap between the bus and the ground. He pulled the step down. It flipped back up.

?Hmmm...,? he muttered. ?Hold on a minute, just let me fix this.?

He went into the back of the bus and came out with a large metal wrench and gave the step a few good whacks.

?It must have been all the rain,? one passenger helpfully suggested.

They say the true measure of a person is not whether they make mistakes, but how they handle them. Mr. DeGrilla handled the broken step by carefully helping each person down the short drop as though they were made of fine crystal.

?Put your arm around my shoulder,? he said. ?The step is broken.?

At the hospital, where one lady was dropped off for an appointment, Mr. DeGrilla had another go at the step. This time he enlisted the help of others.

Soon there were two, then three men pulling the step, prodding it, offering unhelpful suggestions and banging it with the wrench.

?The last time, I just kicked it and it worked,? said one newcomer, but all the kicking in the world wouldn?t fix the problem.

?What a sad state of affairs,? Mr. DeGrilla muttered.

After radioing the dispatcher about the problem, new passengers were carefully deposited into the bus, and Project Action was off again, zooming to the aid of more senior citizens in need of transportation.

?Here lately, I use the bus at least twice a week,? said Louise Franks. ?I do like riding on the bus. A nurse used to come and pick me up, but she is retired.

?A couple of times my granddaughter bought me in for my appointments. I thought I?d try the Project Action bus, and I am very pleased with it.?

One bus patron called the service a ?Godsend?.

Cindy Swan, Project Action chairman, said there is a dire need for the service even though public buses are free for seniors.

?A lot of the bus stops are not near where our seniors live,? said Mrs. Swan. ?A lot of them live off the beaten path of the buses. For them to do the grocery shopping, or come out in inclement weather it is extremely difficult.

?If you have a senior who is sitting at home who does not have the medication they need to take, or a way of getting to the pharmacy to get their medication, you would find their health was endangered by not having some kind of transportation assistance.

?We also pick up medication for some of our clients.?

Mr. DeGrilla gave up on the step and headed out toward St. David?s, stopping along the way to pick up passenger Jean Howes and her guide dog.

Mrs. Howes, who is blind, said she uses the service every couple of weeks.

?I had a blind friend staying with me from Vermont,? she said. ?I told her about this bus. We took a ride all the way to St. George?s. We went to a lot of places. We saw old friends. Every so often Shuby would tell us what we were passing, or something about the scenery.?

Mrs. Howes said it was wonderful for philanthropist David Barber to donate the buses to Project Action.

?Many times people want to go shopping, but they have no way of getting there,? she said. ?If you have appointments, he (Mr. Degrilla) tells you to call him when you are finished.?

She took a bottle of water from Mr. DeGrilla.

?We want to thank John Barritt & Son for donating the water,? said Mr. DeGrilla. ?I keep a case of it up front and ice it down in the morning.?

In St. David?s, Mr. DeGrilla stopped the bus to pick up two residents of the Yellow Roses Rest home. As Mr. DeGrilla squeezed the bus down narrow lanes and around tight corners, it became apparent why Project Action needed a third bus.

Project Action is currently raising money through a raffle to put a third bus into action. Each $50 raffle ticket keeps a senior citizen or physically handicapped person riding the bus for a year.

?With the third bus we are going to go a little smaller,? said Mrs. Swan. ?There are still a lot of tribe roads in Bermuda we are not able to service. The third bus will seat six to eight people with one wheelchair.

?Then we will have two wheelchair facilities. The red bus is equipped to take two wheel chairs but presently, because we need the space for walkers we only keep it as one. The blue bus has capacity for four wheel chairs.?

Project Action also hopes to place a bus at either end of the island so that Mr. DeGrilla and other Project Action bus drivers don?t have to traverse the entire island multiple times each day.

Mrs. Howes said that once when she was on the bus, Mr. DeGrilla picked up three people in wheelchairs from the same rest home to take them to the hospital.

Because the bus only took one wheelchair, he had to make separate trips for each wheelchair person, and then do the same on the return trip.

To use the service, senior citizens simply have to call the Project Action dispatcher, Arlene Brewster, located in St. George?s and register themselves as a senior citizen or a physically challenged person.

After that, if they need a ride, they call the dispatcher a day ahead of time to arrange it. The Project Action office also helps senior citizens with filling out forms, photocopying and letter typing.

Kim Young, director of Project Action, said she was at the first meeting when Sir John Plowman suggested that a special bus service would be useful for senior citizens.

?A lady told me this story about how she had to take two buses to get to the grocery store, and then two buses back,? said Mrs. Young. ?She said she loved apple juice, but she never bought any because it was too heavy to carry home.

?Shuby will take the groceries to the van, and take them into the house. The door-to-door service is a huge boon for the seniors. Other buses only take people along a specific route. Some people haven?t been out of the house in ages.?

Several bus patrons catch the Project Action bus, just for the ride.

?Sometimes Shuby takes a group to the airport,? said Mrs. Young. ?They sit on the grass verge and watch the planes take off. That?s a real treat for them. Some of them haven?t been to the airport in so long.

?Sometimes he takes them to get ice cream, or to the doctor. He might take a group to Clearwater Beach and leave them for a couple of hours. They like to see what the next generation is doing to the island.?

Mr. DeGrilla said that for someone to be a driver for Project Action, one needs a truck license and a good personality.

?By luck, everything kind of fell together for me,? he said. ?Someone from Project Action approached me about driving for them. I had been working for IBC.

?I was doing some gardening when a man from Project Action came by. He said, we just bought a bus, would you like to be a driver? The rest is history.?

The broken step was fixed later that afternoon with a little bit of oil.

For more information call 297-5044.