Friday 9th June, Women in Rail, in collaboration with Nimble Media, hosted The Big Rail Diversity Challenge 2017 at the Peterborough Arena.

 

45 teams (most of them comprising 5 men and 5 women) competed in challenges ranging from Human Table Football, Code Breaking and Hungry Hippos to Motorised Bathtub Dash and Hovercraft Relay Course, via Giant Buzz Wire, Duck Herding, Zumba and Bubble Football to name a few.

 

32 railway companies were represented, including Siemens, Bombardier, Cross Counry, KBRS, Virgin Trains East Coast, the DfT, Hitachi and Heathrow Express.

 

Attendance grew by a staggering 50% from last year and the feedback has been amazing: “Last year was great fun but this year was truly fantastic!”.

 

The Team of the Year, overall winner, was HS2 – Team 2 with 280 points.

 

The Bring On The Beans Award, presented by The Railway Benefit Fund, and awarded to the team with the best sense of humour, went to Technical Knockouts (Arcadis).

 

The Shelter Building Award, presented by the Railway Children, went to Young Rail Professionals.

 

The Best Team Name Award, chosen by Bernadette Kelly (Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport) and Malcolm Brown (Chief Executive Officer at Angel Trains), went to Simply the Hex (Heathrow Express) and Virgin On The Ridiculous (Virgin Trains East Coast).

 

The Most Collaborative Team Award went to Disruptive Innovators (Siemens Rail Automation).

 

Details of each team score and well as pictures of the event will be published on The Big Rail Diversity website (www.bigraildiversity.co.uk) at the end of this week.

 

We would like to say a huge thank you to the fabulous Nimble Media team, our sponsors Colas Rail and Angel Trains and to all of those who took part – it was an amazing day!