In September, Women in Rail held the inaugural Big Rail Diversity Challenge at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground.

 

The purpose of the event was to demonstrate that gender diverse teams work better together and to raise the awareness of the business benefits attained when companies improve their male:female worker ratio.

 

Over 300 attendees took part in a physically and mentally demanding set of challenges, from Soapbox Building to mind boggling quizzes, via Haka, Human Table Football, Supercars, Zorbing and Just a Minute to name a few.

 

The Best Team Name, judged ahead of the event by Bernadette Kelly, Director General, Rail Group, Department for Transport, went to ‘The Nuts and Bolts’ (Porterbrook Leasing Company).

 

Award for the Best Shelter was presented by Katie Mason, Events Manager for The Railway Children (chosen charity for 2016) and went to Fusion (Bam Nuttall joint venture).

 

Award for Collaborative Teamwork was presented by Adeline Ginn, founder of Women in Rail, and went to SNC Lavalin (team name: Tractive Effort).

 

Leading the pack for Team of the Year 2016 were GoVia (team name: Aequalitas et Diversitas) who scored an impressive 93 points out of 100, closely followed by Angel Trains Team One (team name: Derby’s Angels) with 91 points; Carmichael UK and MTR Crossrail came in joint third place, with an equally impressive 88 points apiece.  Members from the GoVia team were presented with their award along with bottles of champagne, by the event host, Vicky Binley from Nimble Media.

 

The event was a resounding success and through your generosity on the day we also managed to raise a further £886 for The Railway Children.

 

Pictures of The Big Rail Diversity Challenge can now be viewed on The Big Rail Diversity Challenge website: www.bigraildiversity.co.uk.