Male and female traincrew

[telstarbox]

A question for train crew. Just idly wondering what the gender split is for the guard and driver grades at your TOC? In my experience guards and dispatchers seem to be 50/50 but I rarely see a female driver except on the London Underground.

 

[TheEdge]

Around these parts there are more female guards than drivers. But even then its probably about 80/20 for guards and something silly like 95/5 for drivers.

 

[me123]

I don't have numbers and don't work in the industry, but I would say anecdotally that there appears to be a higher proportion of females in Scotrail "traveling ticket inspector" roles than in guard roles.

What that says about the jobs/applications process/gender equality etc... I'll leave that to others to work out!

 

[Crossover]

Hull Trains seem to have a greater proportion of female crew from the times I have travelled with them - indeed, when they go through who the crew have been as they reach the terminus, it seems as such

 

[Greenback]

I am seeing more and more female conductors with ATW. I saw one a couple of weeks ago who used to be on the catering trolley. She is probably one of the latest intake to the grade.

 

[paulravuslante]

This Heathrow Express newsletter has some stats about the numbers of females driving trains in the UK (4.5% of total workforce). However they go on to state that Heathrow express bucks the trend as 40% of their 84 drivers are female.

https://www.heathrowexpress.com/news/2015/01/09/driving-trains-no-longer-just-a-boyhood-dream

 

[Llanigraham]

There certainly was a few female drivers on the Cambrian, and most of the guards seem to be ladies now.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

I would hazard a guess as for drivers 95% are Male and for Guards about 80% are Male

Out of these Statistics 50% act like old women

 

[craigybagel]

5% of drivers where I am are female, and about a quarter of the guards. Ours is quite a senior depot mind, from what I've seen it tends to be the depots with less seniority that has more female staff.

 

[the sniper]

Where I am (large suburban depot, 100+ Drivers/Guards) I'd guess around 5% of drivers are women, probably a bit less. On the Guards side, maybe around 15% before taking away a couple of percent to take into account long term sickness/pregnancy/maternity/accommodated part timers.

EDIT: I didn't see the above posts before posting, but I think OP you're getting pretty accurate estimations here!

 

[313103]

When I was a Guard the split between Male and Female was around 80% male and 20% female in the Guards grade (Now Zero as no Guards).

For Drivers it was around 75% male & 25% female. Not sure if that has changed much since 2013.

 

[Dieseldriver]

About 10% female drivers at my depot. Was 0% at my previous place!

 

[DeparturesBeck]

Females make up about 8% of drivers where I am, and about 30% of driver managers.

 

[Carlisle]

As a shunter in around 1992 a female driver used to bring trains to our depot who was aparantly a few years previously the first woman driver on BR

 

[jay3562]

My depot its about 80% male guards and 90% male drivers but with the last few batches of new drivers they have been female heavy one group having 4/6 females and the other having 3/5 females ,

Of the dispatchers that I see when I am out and about its about 50/50 and booking offices about the same .

 

[jay3562]

One thing I have never seen is a female fitter , and I dont know any female shed drivers either

 

[Smudger105e]

One thing I have never seen is a female fitter , and I dont know any female shed drivers either

There are a few female fitters about, where I work there are 2 out of about 80. Not a high percentage I grant you!

 

[TDK]

At the depot I work there are 2 female drivers out of 81, the guards are about 30% female. A sister depot has 2 out of 24 female drivers so I suppose the average would be 4 - 5%

 

[TheEdge]

I was once stood at Sheringham chatting to my female driver that morning minding our own business when an old lad who had been on our train came up to us out of the blue and simply said to her "It's so lovely to see a lady driver" and walked off, leaving us both fairly bemused.

Obviously every time I work with said driver since we greet with "It's a laaaddyyyy driver" in the style of the Little Britain sketch.

 

[whizzylizzy]

There is a female Site support engineer at Ardwick Depot

 

[scott118]

I was once stood at Sheringham chatting to my female driver that morning minding our own business when an old lad who had been on our train came up to us out of the blue and simply said to her "It's so lovely to see a lady driver" and walked off, leaving us both fairly bemused.

Obviously every time I work with said driver since we greet with "It's a laaaddyyyy driver" in the style of the Little Britain sketch.

Oh man, you are such, a cad..

 

[70014IronDuke]

I suppose there might have been some on the Southern, but having been BR in the 70s, I can't remember any female train crew whatsoever. As for female fitters - heck, it made their day at the depots and works where I was if one of the lasses from the offices so much as peered in the workshops. (I don't think most would have dared to enter - the wolf whistles would have broken eardrums.)

I presume (and hope) such behaviour from the male fraternity is a thing of the past on today's railway.

More to today's point - seeing a current thread about assault in this newsgroup - I wonder, do female guards/conductors/ticket inspectors actually have fewer problems with rowdy troublemakers than their male counterparts?

I suspect so, your average tough guy being more willing to "have it out" with a bloke, but have no idea of the practice.

 

[jay3562]

More to today's point - seeing a current thread about assault in this newsgroup - I wonder, do female guards/conductors/ticket inspectors actually have fewer problems with rowdy troublemakers than their male counterparts?

I suspect so, your average tough guy being more willing to "have it out" with a bloke, but have no idea of the practice.

My experience from speaking to my female colleagues is that whilst female guards suffer a lot less assaults they are all too often to object of sexual harassment when it comes to late night drunk expresses be it physhical touching or just suggestive comments . Something I as a male guard didn't experience nearly as often.

 

[the sniper]

More to today's point - seeing a current thread about assault in this newsgroup - I wonder, do female guards/conductors/ticket inspectors actually have fewer problems with rowdy troublemakers than their male counterparts?

I suspect so, your average tough guy being more willing to "have it out" with a bloke, but have no idea of the practice.

I don't think so. Anecdotally I'd say that the women get more verbal abuse, particularly offensive name calling.

 

[ivanhoe]

I don't think so. Anecdotally I'd say that the women get more verbal abuse, particularly offensive name calling.

I'd argue from my experience using EMT that the female on board staff are quite firm in dealing with such situations . This is probably due to good training but more importantly, damn good staff.

 

[plastictaffy]

My depot is currently transitioning from a very senior depot, to quite a young depot, with a few retiring recently, and a few due to go imminently. We have 2 links of 27 on the Guard's side with around 5 of those being female. Only one of those, however, has been in the grade for anything more than a couple of years, so until recently there was one female in 54!! Drivers wise - it was all male until we had two transfer in from another depot when the timetable changed in December.

 

[sarahj]

There are a few of us at Southern, not a great amount. Driver wise the odd five or six that I know. For drivers it sometimes looks as though Southern has a clone machine for male newbies.

 

[scotraildriver]

We have 2 females and 94 males. We do however have alot of female conductors. I've often discussed with them about becoming drivers and TBH they simply aren't interested. Alot of them seem to like interaction with passengers and seem quite happy to stay where they are.

 

[Goatboy]

This Heathrow Express newsletter has some stats about the numbers of females driving trains in the UK (4.5% of total workforce). However they go on to state that Heathrow express bucks the trend as 40% of their 84 drivers are female.

https://www.heathrowexpress.com/news/2015/01/09/driving-trains-no-longer-just-a-boyhood-dream

Heathrow Express has 84 drivers?!

How does it need 84 drivers for 15 units?

 

[AnonymousUser1]

Heathrow Express has 84 drivers?!

How does it need 84 drivers for 15 units?

what's the standard working week ?

HEx is a (near) round the clock service ergo 4 point something to 5 FTEs required to staff one 'slot' round the clock disregarding longer annual leave / long term sick / suspensions etc.