To live her dream, Andrea Kuhlenschmidt moved from her home town of Hamburg to Wiesbaden. For her, being a bus driver is both challenging and fulfilling. And thanks to her smooth driving style, her happy customers often give her sweet rewards.

Her watchful eyes flicker over the mirrors. Her hands calmly turn the wheel. Gently, but purposefully, she pulls out from the bus stop, steering her Mercedes-Benz eCitaro, in its white, orange and blue livery, into heavy traffic. Andrea Kuhlenschmidt radiates calm, even when battling through the daily traffic jams on the streets of Wiesbaden. “Sometimes you barely get through. But there’s no point getting worked up about it,” says the 26-year-old bus driver. “It’s driving around town in such a big vehicle, while bearing full responsibility for the safety of passengers, that is the real challenge and the attraction of being a bus driver.”

Andrea Kuhlenschmidt was fully conscious of this challenge when she took it on. A qualified home economist, a career in retail – that couldn’t be all she was looking for. Inspired by a job posting by transport company Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH), this Hamburg native started to feel the urge to become a bus driver. “I love interacting with people – and with huge vehicles,” says Kuhlenschmidt. Being a bus driver meant doing both. 

To start her dream job, Andrea Kuhlenschmidt had to leave her home city on the Elbe. Thanks to a YouTube video, the then 22-year-old had become aware of the ESWE Verkehr transport company in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse, and applied for a training programme without further ado. After six months of basic training, passing her driving test and being accepted to run bus routes, she started full employment in November 2017 – at that point, the youngest driver on the ESWE Verkehr team. 

Women may still make up a small proportion of the over 700 bus drivers at ESWE Verkehr – around six percent – but Andrea Kuhlenschmidt is glad to know that ever greater numbers are following her example and opting for the same career. “Of course women are just as good at driving buses as men,” states Kuhlenschmidt. “Some passengers even say we do it better,” she grins. More than once, her regular passengers have presented her with chocolate goodies to thank her for her smooth driving. What is a better compliment than that?

After more than three years on the route, the young bus driver now knows the streets of Wiesbaden like the back of her hand. And because she herself has to deal all too frequently with bad weather, traffic jams and delays, she has created the Facebook page “ÖPNV Wiesbaden Liveticker”. During her breaks, she uses the page to warn almost 700 followers about current disruption to public transport and city traffic in Wiesbaden. 

Andrea Kuhlenschmidt regularly drives one of the numerous electric buses – a Mercedes-Benz eCitaro, to be precise – that joined the ESWE Verkehr fleet in 2019. Her experience: “eCitaros are noticeably quieter on the road, offering the passengers – and me too, as their driver – a whole lot of comfort.” However, her favourite bus is a bit more old-school: number 310, an articulated Citaro now with far more than 500,000 kilometres on the clock. “It just gets everything right: harmonically adjusted brakes, a smooth transmission, and it's well broken-in all round,” she laughs, before pulling her fully electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro into the next parking bay.