Assistant Director of Macomb’s Public Transportation Retires
By Cheryl Douglas
On May 1, 2026, Peter J. Hannen will retire as Macomb’ s Assistant Director of Public Transportation. Pete, as many know him by, started 27 years ago at the bus garage and worked his way up by being a driver (school bus and transit) and a driver trainer. Eventually he became the Go West operations assistant to Jude Kiah. Peter has handled the finances, routes and minute specifics of Go West for years, witnessing it becoming a finely tuned machine for the students of Western Illinois University and the Macomb public.
Hannen is a Glenview, Illinois native and attended Maine Township North High School. Pete and his wife Julie have two children, Alex who lives in Macomb, and Amber who resides in Ohio. They also are proud grandparents of three grandchildren.
Hannen’s retirement will be the loss of a person who knows every detail of every Go West route, the history of the bus fleet, and every schedule down to the minute. However, something is calling Peter J. Hannen to retire, that probably many people are not aware of. Hannen loves music.
Many years ago he majored in music education at WIU and taught band at LaHarpe for one year. Other jobs he worked at over the years while raising small children included being a custodian at the Presbyterian Church and a stint at Pizza Hut.
He was informed that at that time Laidlaw needed Go West drivers, so he worked parttime for the Macomb school bus system and parttime as a substitute driver for Go West. Pete became involved in designing routes and times for the Go West transit buses.
As far as changes over the years in the transit industry Hannen states that it has become harder to find drivers. Many of the older baby boomer era drivers have retired, and the younger generation either have trouble meeting the rigid qualifications or just don ’t want to drive a bus.
Also, Hannen explains, it has become harder logistically to get someone hired on, due to such things as coordinating schedules of all of those involved in the hiring process, the ones who give physicals, do background checks, etc. Hannen stresses that driving a bus is actually a very good fulltime or parttime job, with good pay and benefits.
With his transit career behind him, Pete smiles when he talks about his retirement plans. He has not only already composed music, he has copyrights on some pieces. He plans on continuing to compose music and play in several bands.
For 10 to 12 years , Hannen played the saxophone for Sally Weisenberg, a regionally well known singer.
Some of the other bands he has performed with include Dick Marcott’ s House Cats, Bullis Rutter Big Band (Keokuk), Post 6 Big Band, Swan’s Slyders, and the Lamoine River Ramblers.
When asked what his musical inspirations were, Pete quickly says the band “Chicago ” was a big favorite. He also enjoyed Glenn Miller, Maynard Ferguson, and the Johnny Carson band.
Pete and his wife Julie look forward to spending time with their grandchildren. He also plans on writing some fiction, building a web site, and engaging in role playing 4 games. He and Julie may do some traveling, perhaps returning to Europe where he played with the Western Illinois University Big Band way back in the day.
Pete will miss working for the Go West team. He feels the buses are a great benefit to the Macomb community, both for the students and the public. He remembers a day when the buses were so full of WIU students that he had to constantly say “behind the line ”. The yellow line on the bus floor designated how far back the students had to stand in order to give the driver space to safely do his or her job.
Hannen is proud that over 27 years no passenger was seriously hurt riding the buses or crossing the streets.
May 1st will be the beginning of a new chapter for Pete. Some of his composed music is already on You Tube under Peter J. Hannen, and you can bet there will soon be more.
