Railway company gets on track to recruit more female train drivers

A TRAIN company is setting out a new timetable to attract more young girls into the business when they’re planning their future careers.

Train operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is aiming to make a change and shift the dial on attitudes to women pursuing careers in the rail industry, particularly train driver roles.

LNER has pledged to double the number of female driver applications by 2025 after research it conducted found that only one per cent of girls surveyed wanted to become train drivers when they grew up, compared with 21 per cent who wanted to be famous, and 23 per cent who wanted to be a teacher.

Karen Lewis, LNER’s people director said that more needed to be done to promote careers in rail to women, including train driver roles.

“The rail industry needs to do more to encourage women to consider a career in the sector,” Ms Lewis said.

The number of women applying to LNER for driver roles has more than doubled in three years, increasing from just seven per cent of 2017 applications to 17 per cent in 2020. LNER is encouraging more women to consider train driver roles in the future, with a goal of 40 per cent of driver applications to be from females by 2025.

Leeds-based LNER train driver Becky Brown has been driving trains for almost 10 years and has an eight-year old daughter who aspires to be a driver when she grows up.

Ms Brown said: “Driving a train is an interesting job, although I do get surprised looks when people ask me what I do for a living and when people see a woman driving the train as it pulls into the platform. I love hearing from my daughter that she too wants to be a driver, as it’s such a unique career path.”

The LNER research showed a clear divide in roles that were ‘stereotypically’ male and female when it came to the aspirations of women when they were younger, with 18 per cent wanting to be a nurse or a vet, compared to two per cent considering a career as a mechanic or less than one per cent as a plumber when they grew up.

PICTURES: NIGEL RODDIS/PA WIRE LINE OF WORK: Train driver Becky Brown and her daughter Maisie, eight, launch LNER’s initiative to encourage more women to pursue careers in the rail industry.