At the prestigious Rail Business Awards ceremony held last Thursday, 23rd February, at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane, TransPennine Express (TPE) won the award for Diversity & Inclusion in Rail.
The Diversity & Inclusion Award recognises work carried out to develop a strong and successful inclusion programme in the UK rail industry that reaches out to local communities to ensure local people are given access to, and the opportunity to benefit from, a career in rail.
This was the 25th anniversary of the Rail Business Awards and was marked with a gala evening hosted by comedian Zoe Lyons. TransPennine Express gained the award for its data-led and evidence-based approach to diversity and inclusion.
The Rail Business Award judges said that TransPennine Express was able to demonstrate that it fully understood the issues and recognised that the same solution does not work in all situations.
To help the company target ethnically diverse or socially disadvantaged areas, the company established clear benchmarks for all its work locations by conducting a geo-demographic review of the populations that surround them.
Until now, women accounted for 27 per cent of the company’s new employees and 31 per cent of internal promotions, whilst 14 percent of all applicants identified LGBT+, which is more than representative compared with the latest ONS data that estimates 3.4 per cent of the population aged 16 years and over identifies as LGBT+.
To help improve those figures, as part of its induction programme for all new starters TransPennine Express has introduced an inclusion session that includes a pack of resource links covering:
- inclusive language;
- industry networks such as Women in Rail, Muslims in Rail, Young Rail Professionals and Archway LGBT+ and allies’ network;
- how to access bite-sized learning for all;
- details of the company’s career development programmes aimed at improving female or ethnically diverse colleague representation within management grades.
Harriet Harbidge, Diversity and Inclusion Manager for TransPennine Express said: “I’m delighted we have won the Diversity & Inclusion Award at the prestigious rail business awards.
“This is a great achievement that recognises the hard work we have put into making TPE an even more diverse and inclusive organisation.
“As an inclusive employer, we have increased our headcount of all under-represented groups and have introduced new and effective programmes to give colleagues from diverse backgrounds a stronger career path in rail.
“At TPE we value individuals’ contributions, regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, social background, religion, or belief. I’m very proud to see this work recognised by our industry.”
Responses
I quite frankly could not care less about their diversity policy. I would prefer a policy where they honour the ticket that I actually bought rather than have me stand on each of the three replacement trains I need to take because they keep cancelling my single direct train on a weekly basis.
In view of the state of TPE’s recent and current abysmal service, which appears not likely to improve soon, I cannot say I am vaguely interested in their diversity matters.The public might well be more interested in how they are going to restore their services to something like normal.
The Government should bring in operator of last resort asap.
Now all they need to do is start to run a service. No trains at all all day on Leeds- Huddersfield yesterday. If this company was based in the south they’d have lost the franchise by now. Totally unacceptable