karen

Members of WiCR along with Jools and Richard Burningham from Community Rail Network joined with the steering group on the 29th of June to celebrate our 4th birthday in style.
Zoom style, of course

Marion summarised our achievements so far and outlined our objectives for the next five years. She stressed the importance of increasing membership and asked all members to ‘get engaged and get involved’ as we go forward with work in our key areas of mentoring, networking, and inclusivity.

Then it was party time!

Richard Lyson’s quiz questions led us from pop divas through to vodka cocktails by way of 19th century novelists.
Amazing Women all!

Karen’s scavenger hunt sent us off to find things we wear on our heads(and made us wear them!)
In the ‘guess the use of the unusual objects’ game, Sheila’s spurtle had most of us baffled.(It’s a traditional Scottish porridge spoon)

We sang ‘Happy Birthday’, ate cake, lit candles, and raised a glass to Women in Community Rail.

We’ve come a long way in four years!

A year after the launch in Manchester of ‘Women who Wander, WiCR members were invited to a spectacular event at the Museum of Liverpool on International Women’s Day 2019.

Hundreds of girls and young women had entered a writing competition with the theme of ‘A Female Future’. The twenty-five winners collected their prizes and read their pieces to an audience of parents, teachers, and rail industry professionals.

The (female!) Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Christine Banks, gave an inspirational speech, drawing on examples from
her own life to show what women can achieve.
Samantha Dowd was there, interviewing and filming for her videos on paid and voluntary opportunities in Community Rail.
‘Staged Kaos’ youth theatre treated us to an exuberant dance performance on Women’s Rights themes.

And we all took home a beautifully presented booklet of all the winning competition entries.

At mid-morning on the day of the 2017 Flower Show, a mixed group of Samaritans, BTP, Merseyrail staff and WiCR members (all with clipboards and welcoming smiles) were greeting female passengers arriving at Southport station.

Their brief was to ask women to complete a short survey about their experiences of rail travel.

It was never going to be a scientific study.

Students and women going to work would have travelled earlier, so our responders were likely to be ‘of a certain age’ and keen gardeners!

However, we wanted to hear their views, and, though they were naturally eager to get on with their day, most agreed to talk to us.

Asked if they felt confident travelling by train, the majority responded:

1) Mainly confident travelling (alone or accompanied) in the daytime but didn’t use trains in the evening.

2)Confidence greatly increased by the presence of staff on trains and stations.

Unsurprising maybe, but nonetheless interesting.

After an exciting and eventful year, we celebrated our first birthday at Liverpool Lime Street Station in July 2017.

In front of our new WiCR banner, at a stand shared with Community Rail in the City, Carolyn 

from Northern, Julie (a train driver) and WiCR members chatted with visitors, and gave out WiCR information leaflets, and, of course, there was birthday cake!

It was a great opportunity for conversations about the need for increased inclusion, diversity, and gender balance across the rail industry.

We were also glad to answer two FAQ’s:

Q Are your members all women?

A. No! Our membership is open to anyone who shares our aims and wants to help us in Achieving Change Together.

Q. What does it cost to join?

A. Nothing! There’s no membership fee.

And so, we looked forward to the start of our second year.