London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is making a commitment to bring more women into the rail industry by 2025, focusing specifically on train driver roles.

Driving roles currently represent the biggest disparity between male and female applicants. Industry-wide, the 2019 ASLEF Diversity report showed that just 6.5 per cent of train drivers in the UK were women. LNER currently has 10 per cent of drivers who are female and is aiming to further increase female participation in its driving workforce.

The number of women applying to LNER for driver roles has more than doubled in three years, increasing from just seven per cent of 2017 applications to 17 per cent in 2020. LNER is encouraging more women to consider train driver roles in the future, with a goal of 40 per cent of driver applications to be from females by 2025.