Meet Sarah
I have always been interested in what we now call the sharing economy and in particular in shared or collective transport -a better term than ‘public transport’ - so important as a means of bringing people together in a way that reduces the harm to our environment.
For most of my career I have been involved in running railways, initially with British Rail, then Eurotunnel and latterly with Network Rail and various Train Operators including work for railways in Europe and North America. I have mainly done delivery-focussed roles including as Station Manager at Carlisle and as Area Director for Network Rail, leading a team of over 1,000 staff operating signals, running the planning and control offices and maintaining the railway infrastructure in Wales and the Borders.
A nerve-racking experience was the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 when I was the Royal Train Officer, responsible for the safety of Queen Elizabeth and four hundred VIPs travelling through the tunnel to the official reception in Calais. The opening date was fixed years in advance and the infrastructure and the rolling stock wasn’t yet as reliable as it should have been. The chief engineer on-board radioed me just before our arrival in France. I was told we needed to stop immediately, completely reset the power supply to the train, and then we would have a 50:50 chance of making it to our designated arrival position rather than the current zero chance. At this point the train cab was just on the platform but about 800 metres from the red carpet set out for the Queen, failure would mean that she and other dignitaries would have to walk through the train, exit through a single door onto a scruffy bit of platform and then walk along to get to the red carpet. The power reset worked and our train restarted and then stopped perfectly in its appointed place and time for the Queen to be greeted by French President Mitterrand and the world’s media.
I have been working as an independent consultant for the last eight years which has given me more flexibility. The rail industry today has many women in finance, marketing and HR roles but still very few in operations and engineering. If you work for Network Rail, you are more likely to be called Andrew than to be female. I support other women in the industry through a mentoring scheme and there is still a sense of us being pioneers.
Outside of work, I am a Trustee of Share and Repair and of the Independent Transport Commission for whom I have just co-authored a report on the longer-term impacts of the pandemic on transport. I enjoy coast path walking and sailing, neither of which can be done locally so a few years ago I learned to row at Minerva Rowing Club - originally founded as Bath Ladies Boat Club in 1914 by women who were refused entry to the men only City of Bath Rowing Club. And of course, I love a good train journey and last autumn travelled from Bath to Ankara taking 25 trains over 10 days.
Bath Women’s Fund is such a great place to put back into our local community and especially to meet and take inspiration from such fantastic women!