A special livery has been created by the East Midlands Railway’s LGBTQIA+ Employee Network to celebrate Pride and support diversity in the workplace.

The Pride train features a stunning rainbow ‘swoosh’ livery also features the tagline ‘Lets Roll with Pride’ and is now emblazoned to a Class 158 train.

The rail operator has set up six employee network groups, one of which is ‘Stronger Together’ with an aim of improving the representation of its LGBTQIA+ employees alongside the promotion of diversity and inclusion within their workplace.

Jacob Lane, Duty Depot Delivery Manager and EMR LGBQTIA+ Network Lead said: “The idea for a Pride train came about after a discussion in one of our network meetings. We thought this would be an awesome way of showcasing our commitment as a network to set EMR on the right path to promoting Diversity and Inclusion. It’s also a great way to show our support to the Pride events taking place on our network, two of which we are sponsoring.

“Alongside the Pride train, we have created pronoun badges for any employees who would like to wear one and our Organisation Development & Culture Manager Amanda Elkin, has created a video on the importance of getting pronouns right”.

The Pride train will be out and about on East Midlands Railway Regional routes from the 6th of August and will operate the Derwent Valley Line between Derby and Matlock in support of Belper Pride on Saturday the 6th of August and also Derby Pride which is taking place on Saturday the 10th of September. The route has recently been part of a £500,000 track upgrade project, creating a more reliable railway for passengers.