I COULDN'T be in better hands.

I was embarrassingly excited to be asked to have a go at learning how to drive a bus.

But when the reality kicked in and I was actually behind the wheel of single decker, it suddenly seemed like a very bad idea indeed.

Luckily, Linda McNeish, who has been tasked with showing me the ropes, is one of First Glasgow's longest serving employees - and was among the first 10 female bus drivers the company employed.

Linda's first job was driving out of Wishaw Depot and she continued as a bus driver for 19-and-a-half years.

She said: "They said I wouldn't manage it because I was too small. There was a height restriction of 5ft 3in and I didn't quite make it but I knew I could do the job.

"I learned the Highway Code inside out. I took all the information from the Highway Code and wrote it in a book to help me remember.

"I also learned a lot from just standing and watching the drivers – and watching other people's mistakes."

Today Linda is going to be watching my mistakes... but not on the theory test.

All would-be bus drivers have to pass a theory test, which involves 100 questions to be answered in a set time frame.

Linda sets me a mini version of the test and I, somewhat smugly, score 100 per cent.

In case it's just a fluke, I ask Linda to test me again. And it's another 100 per cent.

Well, at least I know what I'm doing on paper.

Linda had left school and started working in a corner shop but around six months later she moved jobs to become a clippie - a conductress on the buses.

She absolutely loved it and was determined to become a driver but in those days you had to have your licence for three years first.

In the meantime, she got a bit of practice in.

Linda, who now works in training and recruitment, said: "At the depot they called me Geez A Shot because that was the first thing I said when the drivers came in.

"Betty, she used to give me a shot of her bus at night when she brought it back to the depot.

"Some of the others would let me out on the road - but that was top secret."

Bang on her 21st birthday, Linda headed straight to see the boss and ask him about a change in her career.

She added: "On my 21st birthday I chapped the boss's door and said, 'That's me 21 today,' and he just said, 'Happy birthday then'.

"But a few days later he called me in and said I could go to driving school - and I was 19-and-a-half years as a bus driver.

"They used to call me the Wee Cracker on the 44."

Before driving the 44 route, Linda's first route was the number 43 from Wishaw to Anderston Cross and her conductor was a man - Benny Evans.

She said being one over very few women drivers meant she wanted to be the best.

She said: "You would hear the conductresses saying 'I'm not doing a shift with him, he's too rough.'

"And I thought, 'I don't want them saying that about me.'

"When mistakes happened you'd sometimes get people saying, 'What do you expect, it's a woman driver' and I also never wanted them saying that about me.

"I was as good as the men."

Right, so no pressure on me then.

Linda takes me outside to where the training bus is parked. Everyone learns on a single decker because apparently once you can drive that, you can drive anything.

Instructor Billy Jones takes over from this point and is going to be my driving coach.

I sit in the seat, click in my seat belt and wonder what on earth I've signed up for.

Usually I'm behind the wheel of a Nissan Micra but Billy explains when you're driving a bus you're essentially sitting in the engine of a normal car because you're so far forward.

I take a shot of the practice route at First Glasgow's depot on the South Side.

It's part of the staff car park and, of course, just at the point where I need to turn left, there's a BMW and a Mercedes parked.

You have to turn the steering wheel far later than you would in a car and it's a real test of nerve to keep your hands still when your brain's sure you're about to plough into someone's pride and joy.

I'm also not great on the breaking.

The bus is very responsive and there's a couple of juddering stops with me at the wheel.

Billy has to remind me I'm carrying precious cargo as a bus driver and I don't want to send them flying.

Linda is very encouraging when I'm tasked with a reversing task. I would never have been able to manage without her guidance - it's no easy feat.

As I'm manoeuvring backwards, she says: "Women make good drivers. They are good to train and they are what you want on the roads because they are defensive drivers.

"They think things through.

"The women who come in tend to stick around and make a career of it and progress well.

"A lot of people are still under the impression it's a man's job, which it's not."

It might be a job open to all but it is still a male dominated career.

Of the 2041 staff employed at First Glasgow, only 5.9 per cent are female and just 95 of them are bus drivers.

The company is keen to address this imbalance and so is hosting a special event for International Women's Day on Friday, March 8.

The depot, at 100 Cathcart Road, will be open from 10am to 2pm for women to come in and find out more about being a bus driver and the other career opportunities, like Linda's, that it can lead to.

Everyone attending will have the chance to drive a training bus - which I highly recommend - and women bus drivers and training school staff will be on hand to share their stories of life on the road.

For anyone who decides that a driving role or a career in the bus industry is something that they’d like to pursue, training school staff will be there to make the application process as easy as possible.

Applicants need to have a car driving licence and be aged 18 or over.

Linda said: "I can't recommend it more as a career.

"It's not the buses, it's the people. I've had a great life on the buses."