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Thursday 6 Mar 2025

International Women’s Day: All-female signalling team showcases broad career opportunities at Network Rail

Region & Route:

Eastern

| Eastern: North & East

In the run up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, members of an all-female signalling box just outside York have told of their journeys into the rail industry.

Network Rail is proud of its efforts to encourage more diversity among its workforce in a sector which remains male-dominated.

The all-female line-up at Hammerton station is not a first – there was another just down the line until very recently – but it is still remarkable.

The role of this team is to change the signals, confirming to train drivers that it’s safe for them to pass through a station, and operating the level crossing gates to keep motorists and pedestrians safe.

Overall in the Eastern region, which comprises Network Rail’s East Coast, North & East, East Midlands and Anglia routes, only 15% of staff are female.

In operations delivery roles, which include signalling, this figure is just 14% – despite a 4% increase since 2020.

Hammerton is notable for another reason. It still has a working, traditional lever system, which proves to be a fascinating feature for many passengers.

Signaller Heather Deighton had worked in hospitality and catering for two decades when she saw an advert to become a level crossing keeper. After beginning that role, she was encouraged by her manager to try signalling school.

Heather said: “It's like a big train set, really! It's great fun, controlling the lights. Kids love it because you can tell them to watch the semaphore signal, then we pull a lever and the semaphore signal moves. They love it!

“So it's quite entertaining work. I always did like trains, to be fair. There's a part of me that misses catering occasionally, but this is a whole new challenge, and it's been really interesting to learn it.”

Newly-qualified Martha Ohr is the latest full-time signaller at Hammerton. After studying policy, politics and economics at university, she worked in admin for the NHS. But her skillset transferred over well to rail, too, demonstrating the industry’s wide breadth of entry criteria.

Martha said: “I like the problem-solving element of being a signaller. Sometimes when things go wrong, even though it's not the best, it's quite exciting to work out what we’re doing now, who do I need to speak to? Even when there’s delays and you have to work out which train I'm going to regulate in front of another train.

“Each day is very different in terms of what can happen and what can be thrown at you, especially when trains are how they are. They like to do things that we don’t know they’re going to do!

Two women have recently completed Network Rail's Signaller Level 3 apprenticeship with two more joining in 2025, while a diverse signalling team will soon lead career sessions for schoolchildren, part of broader efforts to develop women's leadership across rail operations.

Inspire is one of our six employee networks, which help us support our workforce, particularly through efforts focussed on diversity and inclusion.

Network Rail offers careers in roles across operations, maintenance, engineering and professional services.

Visit https://www.networkrail.co.uk/careers to find out more.