A transgender bus driver took her own life by jumping in front of a train after colleagues kept referring to her as male.

Ava Michal Hudson, 27, died on August 7 last year on her way to work at the Chicago Transit Authority, while in her uniform.

She didn’t leave a note and gave no indication she was suicidal before suddenly leaping to her death, just four days after attending her brother’s wedding.

‘Sadly, we’ll never fully know the reason for her death, but the pain left behind after her sudden departure has been acute,’ her family wrote in her obituary.

‘She has already been mourned by many, many friends and relatives across the globe. She will be very much missed and never forgotten.’

Hudson got her bus license just seven months earlier, last January, and passed probation weeks before her death, proudly announcing it in her final Facebook post.

The new job was a turning point for Hudson after several years of struggling with her gender and unemployment after graduating from Wheaton College in 2020.

Transition costs were expensive, running to $875 a month according to a 2022 court petition to legally change her name, plus more for counseling.

Her $61,000 bus driver salary finally allowed for expensive procedures and gave her financial independence for the first time.

‘The day she got her CDL driver’s permit in November 2023 was one of the happiest days of her later life and things finally started to take a turn for the better,’ her obituary read.

‘She often called or texted photos to her family during breaks on her bus routes.’

But the job never quite fit - both literally, with a boxy uniform that led to passengers innocently calling her ‘sir’, and her isolation in the role.