Today LNER rebranded its most iconic service, the ‘Flying Scotsman’ and turned it into the ‘Flying Scotswoman’ for the month of March.

The service, which runs from Edinburgh to London King’s Cross has been rebranded to celebrate International Women’s Day 2020.

Today the service was staffed entirely by women and displayed a special International Women’s Day livery.

Following research which showed that 85% of women have never considered a career in the rail industry, London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is calling on the railway industry to encourage more of them to look at a career on the railways.

Have you seen the Flying Scotswoman? If you have, then why not share your pictures of the special livery on Locostop – Our Community Page

What did the officials say?

Launching the results of the research on International Women’s Day, LNER’s People Director Karen Lewis 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,”

Ms Lewis added.

“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.”

“The UK rail industry is at its most dynamic point in modern times with the roll out of new technologies, new fleets and big new projects that offer women a huge range of career opportunities,”

Ms Lewis explained.

“With 60 per cent of women citing that the industry is not relevant for their skills, it’s clear that women are not seeing the full spectrum of opportunities that rail offers.”

Loraine Martins, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Network Rail said:

“We’ve made positive strides in the last five years, such as making our job adverts gender-neutral, introducing maternity buddying and a Women in Leadership Programme to ensure that more women are being considered for senior positions. We also need to get the basics right, which is why we are committed to improving facilities for women working on the front line.

“This is about ensuring our organisation is as diverse as the communities we serve and valuing the contributions that everyone can make to our business. We will continue to work tirelessly to increase the proportion of women at Network Rail at all levels in our business, as well as developing the phenomenal talent that we already have.”

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