DeltaRail puts the boot in!

This from the Daily Mail...

Anna Matthews has sparked a ‘British jobs for British workers’ row between her firm DeltaRail and the rail infrastructure company on which it relies for 70 per cent of its business.

Matthews says three foreign consortia have been short-listed by Network Rail for a major multi-billion pound Traffic Management signalling contract in the UK.

Anna Matthews is infuriated Network Rail has allocated £70m to help the foreign contenders develop their bids

Yet she claims her own cutting-edge business, which has developed an advanced real-time computer-controlled train signalling system, has been shunted into the sidings and dropped from the bidding.

Ouch!

The ability to speak truth unto power is yet another reason why we need more Women in Rail!

Women in Rail - launches with long queues!

This from Virginia Water...

Today, 200 industry leaders attended the launch event of Women In Rail.

WiR is a new initiative that aims to support opportunities for women in today's railway, as well as encourage all young people to consider a future in our industry.

With support from across the railway the event included high-powered presentations from ORR's Anna Walker, NR's Dyan Crowther and Heidi Mottram (late of Northern Rail)

Particularly striking was the statistic showing that the rail industry remains 83% male.

Meanwhile, the percentage of female workers amongst skilled employees languishes at the following levels: Train operators/drivers (4%); Engineers (4.5%) and Signallers (6.5%).

Despite this seemingly depressing imbalance of representation in the workplace, attendees left both enthusiastic and bursting for more!  
 
Happily the venue afforded equally generous PNB facilities for both Ladies and Gents... (shurely shome mishtake? Ed)

Launch event for Women in Rail

Regular readers of Eye and Passenger Transport magazine may recall the Fact Compiler lamenting the paucity of ladies in senior railway management roles.

So Eye was heartened to see that a new organisation, Women in Rail, will hold its launch event on the 10th of April.

According to the blurb...

The theme of the event is "Women in Rail: shaping the future of rail". Presentations will focus on the business case for supporting and encouraging women in the rail sector and developing strategies for engaging young people to consider a career in rail.

Speakers will include, amongst others, Sir David Rowlands (former Permanent Secretary to the Department for Transport), Heidi Mottram OBE (CEO at Northumbrian Water), Heather Jackson (Chief Executive and Founder of An Inspirational Journey), The Hon Anna Walker (Chair at the Office of Rail Regulation) and Dyan Crowther (Route Managing Director, Network Rail).

And quite right too.

Although Eye wonders why WiR has given Angel chairman Sir David Rowlands top billing when the impressive DG Rail might have been more appropriate? (Perhaps because Angel is sponsoring it? Ed)

After all, Clare Moriarty is board champion for gender at DfT and is responsible for supporting the development of women leaders across the Civil Service.