Female train drivers have big shoes to fill

Mathivha started in 2001 as a ticket examiner

Train driver Porchia Mathivha always feels women have big shoes to fill as train drivers.

Mathivha, 35, constantly over-performs at her job to prove that women are good train drivers just like men and deserve to be in such positions.

Added pressure comes from the fact that her husband holds a managerial position at her employer, Metrorail, and she has to show her colleagues that she is not where she is due to special treatment.

“My husband is my pillar of strength because he was a (train assistant), a driver and now he is a manager.”

Mathivha looks up to her husband and father-in-law, who she said was the first black train driver in the country.

“Every time when I encounter a challenge in the rail environment I always call my father-in-law and my husband for advice, and they are always pushing and telling me I can overcome any challenge.”

However, she said there was a downside to this.

“But it is also hard because I have to fill their shoes, as they have developed reputations within the company of being hard workers,” she said.

Mathivha started her career in commuter train services in 2001 as a ticket examiner. “The job exposed me to a career opportunity in train driving.

“I used to interact with train drivers a lot as I was always curious to find out what this job was all about.

“I then realised that there were not a lot of women train drivers around and afterwards I just told myself that if there is a vacancy for train drivers I would apply.”

In 2007, the mother of two applied to become a train driver assistant, also known as a metro guard – a job which requires at least matric with mathematics and science. This was the same year she got married.

She completed her six-month course. Her job entailed closing train doors, checking whether commuters embarked and disembarked safely, blowing the whistle to signal to passengers that the train was about to move and communicating with the train driver.

“When there is an emergency, the [assistant] is the one who communicates with the driver to stop the train,” she said.

Her dream of becoming a train driver was realised in 2013 when she completed an 18-month training programme.

“My job as a train driver is to take people to work safely. A train driver needs to be sober-minded, vigilant, punctual, reliable, responsible, able to think fast and you must always love your job at all times.

“When you are driving you must always observe the signals and if you see people on the rails, you must immediately blow the hooter. And when going underneath a bridge you must blow a hooter to make people aware that there is an oncoming train.

“The job helped me to see Gauteng in a new perspective because I go to a lot of places in a train and I interact with people from different races.”

She said what kept her constantly worried as a train driver were people who use trains to commit suicide.