TRAIN 2B EQUAL

Project description

Across the European Union, women and girls represent more than 50% of the passenger rail ridership but they only compose approximately 20% of our workforce. The benefit of a more gender balanced workforce has been proved time and time again. Not only does it benefit organizational culture and performance but it also helps improve products and services dedicated to women, better catering to their specific needs.

In light of the importance of this topic, the UIC has kicked off “TRAIN 2B EQUAL’, an opt-in project which brings together companies committed to gender mainstreaming in their operations to share knowledge and start growing awareness and engagement of UIC members and broader rail community to the topic.

The project will forge links with a number of technical bodies within UIC as a topic with transversal interest. The project links the Talent platform, the Sustainability Platform and the security platform and will seek links to other technical working groups (e.g. Passenger services) where there are common goals and topics established.

Project objectives

Train 2B Equal brings together members to share best practices, promote peer-to-peer learning on the topic, and collectively raise the level of ambition and implementation, transforming the experience of women as passengers and as employees of rail services. As a platform for knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and inspiration, this is a first step in paving the way for change and encouraging the sector to challenge the status quo.

For the first year of the project, Train 2B Equal will work on a series of online workshop that will address the priority topics for members, for growing visibility to the topic and invite more UIC members to join the project, building a robust network of companies that can strengthen rail’s commitment and engagement in gender.

Growing the Train 2B Equal community of supporters would allow the project to expand and work on deliverables such as:

Research on barriers to working in rail for women and the female experience as a rail passenger
Global charter for women and Rail with guidance
Develop training and best practice guidance
Promote and deliver e-learning materials

TRAIN 2B EQUAL is an integral part of the overarching work of UIC in promoting gender equality in the rail sector. In addition to this opt-in project, the UIC Sustainability team is coordinating different workstreams in Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America, in collaboration with the UIC regional desks, tailoring the approach and deliverables according to the priorities set by UIC members in the regions.