Way ahead of the curve
A booming rail industry is recruiting women for work once the domain of men
When they were little girls, the trains seemed to follow them. Johanna Hillary would stop and gaze as the locomotives chugged along Toronto’s lakeshore; the smoke, the clicketyclack of the rails and the soothing rumble of steel cars carrying hidden treasures on their backs.
Ghisliane Jacobs loved to play by the tracks where she grew up in Ontario’s Simcoe County. Her father, a truck driver, would gently remind her to be mindful of the powerful machines.
Both girls used to wonder: Where do the trains go?
They’ll know that, and a whole lot more, when they finish their railway-conductor program at George Brown College in Toronto.
It is a 14-week program that teaches how to switch cars in the yards and on the tracks, how to split up trains and how to work with and manage a crew.
Both Ms. Hillary and Ms. Jacobs say despite a passing childhood fascination, neither had envisioned a career on the rails.
Ms. Hillary, 23, was studying criminology and French at the University of Toronto, yet knew that a desk job wasn’t for her. Working outside, being on the move, that was.
Women, however, haven’t gravitated to this line of work.
Among Canadian Pacific Railways’ 16,000 employees, close to 1,200 are women. Only 200 work on the rails. And in George Brown College’s only conductor class this semester, Ms. Hillary and Ms. Jacobs are the only women in a class of 24 students.
CPR, the second- largest freight railway employer in Canada after CN, is willing to bet that has more to do with a lack of awareness and less to do with a lack of interest.
The company is making a concerted effort to get more women on board as train conductors, a profession historically dominated by men.
It has launched a program aimed at luring more women into the trade, introducing a threeyear scholarship program that will award $1,000 a year to up to 10 recipients. The scholarships are available to students in one of four conductor-training programs in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. CN also offers scholarships to women pursuing a career in the trades.
Paul Wajda, director of CPR’s industrial relations and technical training, said the railway has never had a problem attracting employees.
The conductor position requires people who like the outdoors, who enjoy working in an industrial setting and who don’t mind the awkward hours associated with a 24- 7 business. Conductors, who are in charge of the train operations, earn an average of $65,000 a year with CPR. Locomotive engineers, the people who drive the trains, earn about $85,000 a year.
“I think a lot of women just don’t understand what’s out there,” said Mr. Wajda. “What we’re trying to do is raise awareness.”
The initiative comes at a time of great prosperity and change in the railway industry; Baby Boomers are retiring while business is booming.
With world trade growing, the railways have been racing to keep up with the demand to transport raw materials, much of it en route to Asian markets. Also, trains are moving finished products, arriving from those markets in the port of Vancouver, to other parts of Canada and the United States.
Mr. Wajda said CPR will hire thousands of people in the next five years, 400 of those in one year and specifically for the conductor position.
He noted that although graduates have to go through an interview process, chances of getting hired are good.
A lot of the work will be out West, said Mr. Wajda, but with the rail network stretching coast to coast, conductors could potentially work anywhere in the country.
The lure of the railway moved Kim Price from east to west some eight years ago. The Newfoundlander was a waitress with a university degree but no defined career.
She started as a brake person with CPR in Calgary, and a year later was promoted to the conductor position. Now 40, she is responsible for career placements, helping young workers get started on the rails. College training is followed by a few months of CPR training.
Ms. Price has got used to the idiosyncrasies of her job. She’s not around on the weekends, like other people; she could be travelling the rails. The strains of shift work are weathered thanks to a supportive husband who helps raise their two young children.
“I’m not a person who likes to put on pantyhose and high heels everyday. I’m much happier in workboots and coveralls,” she said, adding: “ there’s nothing in our job that is so physical it’s impossible for women to do, by any stretch.”
In Toronto, Ms. Hillary and Ms. Jacobs look forward to term-end and the start of a dependable career. “No matter how much this world continues to change, there are things that will always need transporting,” Ms. Jacobs said.