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Background

In 2021 Gwen McNeil, an RMT rep based at Scotrail’s Perth depot, produced a short video story of her time as a trade union rep on the railway in Scotland. The video story comprises a selection of images captured by Gwen during her travels across the Scotrail network (and a few from beyond the Scotrail network!). Information about the places and things recorded in these images is listed in the list of location references at the end of this article.

This contribution from Gwen starts with her video story and then concludes with an interview with her for this collection. This was also conducted in 2021.

How did you end up working in the railway? 

After three years at the Inland Revenue and having no luck with each promotion I went for, I spotted an advert in the local paper looking for Train Conductors to join Scotrail. As a single mum at the time, I had a heart to heart with my young daughter’s childminder and she encouraged me to go for it and said that we would work her caring for Holly around my shifts. I couldn’t have managed without her, extended family and friends but almost 16 years later, I’m still here.   

Do you feel you were treated the same as the males on your course? 

I was sometimes asked three questions for everyone else’s one, but that was more to do with building my confidence than being female. The training itself is full on so it did take some time to find my voice, but my fellow trainees were great. 

Was there an equal mix on your course? 

No. I only remember two females in the induction group and just me in the conductor training, the rest were men.   

What are your main duties in your railway role? 

I take responsibility for passenger safety on each service I work. We must make sure our trains are dispatched safely and keep a close eye on people boarding and leaving the train. We patrol to look after people, keep a look out for any faults and assess whether we can fix or require assistance, and complete our revenue duties. We are also there to take charge and offer calm clear instructions in an emergency. 

Have you ever felt you’ve been treated differently for being female, either by passengers or colleagues? 

With passengers I think female conductors can get away with more to diffuse situations. In my experience shouting ‘oy that’s enough’ to groups of guys if something is about to kick off works well. I would never try this with women because sometimes if they are intoxicated, they can see you as spoiling their fun or being the party police. 

With colleagues, I have never felt I’ve been treated differently at all as a conductor.     

Can you give us three things that happened during your career that have stayed with you?  

Quite recently, I was doing some pre-departure checks and I heard a loud scream from a passenger. When I asked if they were ok, they kept clutching their phone saying someone had taken their child. The dispatcher who had boarded the train to give me some information about the service I was about to work called the British Transport Police. It took a few minutes to confirm a child hadn’t been taken from the station, but the passenger was so distressed it took four police officers to escort them from the train to do a welfare check. I asked to be updated on how they were but never heard anything again. I still think of them and hope whatever happened was sorted and they are okay. 

Being voted in as a union rep by my colleagues was a fantastic feeling. I know some were worried I might struggle having a young child and giving guidance to colleagues at different times of the day but I really hope I have proved myself by now. Time will tell if this is the case because elections are due again at the end of this year!

Soon after I started the job we worked an early morning service to Glasgow Queen Street. This service was notorious for being full and standing about halfway into the journey, and it also happened to be the service our then managing director caught. Stepping onto the platform, I could see there was no chance of me getting through to check and sell tickets because of the amount of people boarding the train. When we got to Glasgow, the managing director approached me to ask why I hadn’t gone through. I was going for ‘not many people manage to get through on this train’ but because I was new and really flustered, it came out as ‘I never go through this train!’ Understandably, my ticket machine was monitored randomly for three months to make sure I wasn’t just sitting on the train twiddling my thumbs and thankfully nothing else came of it. That managing director’s nephew is now my local manager and to his credit, if he knows about it, has never mentioned it, which is just as well because 15 years on, I still cringe whenever it’s brought up.