LNER celebrate International Women’s Day with The Flying Scotswoman

All month The Flying Scotswoman will be run with an all female crew.

It is LNER’s Flying Scotsman rebranded to mark International Women’s Day and putting their stamp on a call for women to consider the railways as a career.

The rail company say that research has discovered that 87% of women in Scotland of working age have not ever considered such a career move.

They have assembled an all woman crew to keep the Flying Scotswoman on track all month between Edinburgh and London, trying to get their message across that women make up an important part of their company, and they would like more to join them.

The Flying Scotswoman has an all woman crew during March to highlight the career opportunities in rail. @LNER research – 87% of women in Scotland of working age have never considered a career in rail. Head of Engineering Linda Wain offers the train some TLC before the journey pic.twitter.com/Eyq9tptfuO

— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) March 7, 2020

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Half of their Executive Board is female and they have a diverse workforce with women in a variety of roles including engineers, drivers, dispatchers, chefs, legal and finance managers, digital innovators, travel advisers, and business analysts.

LNER’s People Director Karen Lewis said the rail industry needs to work harder to promote itself to women, who are missing out on a rich source of career opportunities.

She said: “There is a clear need for the industry to work together to demonstrate the unique opportunities on offer with a career in rail, and by doing so to help drive an increase in the number of women in the workplace.”

“LNER bucks the trend with women making up 42 per cent of our workforce, compared to an industry average of 16 per cent. Our diverse workforce is something we’re extremely proud of at LNER and we’re working hard to inspire and attract even more talented women to join the industry.

“LNER has many examples of women who have remained in the business and progressed their careers due to having the right amount of support to do things like further their education or have families. Rail offers competitive salaries and a multitude of opportunities to progress careers, which we know are important factors for women in the working world of 2020.”