Women in Rail South Regional Group

A proud Mancunian with a heart of gold, Tracey joined rail in 2013 and has held senior roles within various areas of the industry before joining LNER in 2023. Throughout her time in rail Tracey has championed equality, equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging whilst being a vocal supporter for STEM and mental health.

In her current role of Senior EDI Business Partner at LNER, she is an advocate for underrepresented groups in the business including gender imbalance, leading on empowering LNER’s people and employee networks to be gents of meaningful change and ensuring everyone’s voice is heard, using her own lived experiences to encourage conversation and growth.

Married with 2 daughters Georgia 24 and Grace 18, Tracey in her own words says “glass ceilings are made to be smashed, sometimes a little helping hand is all that is needed.  As Mum to 2 amazing young women, I have unfortunately witnessed unnecessary hurdles being placed in their paths, as their role model it is my job to show them ways to remove those hurdles to reach their goals. Unfortunately, in many industries and particularly those with gender imbalance, those glass ceilings get lower and the role models less visible.  I am delighted to work with WiR in eradicating those hurdles and continuing to be a force of nature driving change for equity.

Ruth is delighted to be working with Sam to chair the WR South Group and is excited about the opportunity to work with colleagues from across the region.

Rachel joined RDG in 2019 as a PMO Analyst before undertaking a secondment as an Internal Communications and Engagement Specialist, which has since turned into a permanent role. Rachel passionately believes in delivering a high quality employee experience, driven by creating an inclusive working environment for all.

Rachel is a champion of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, using her own experiences to ensure others feel confident to open up and know where to go if they need support. She is also an active ally for the employee networks across RDG, chairing the Inclusion Forum and working hard to identify opportunities to create a more equal and diverse workplace.

Before joining the rail industry, Rachel was an English teacher and believes her passion for improving the people experience stems from working with young people and wanting them to feel safe and confident as they navigated their way through secondary school.

Rachel is the Senior CRM Manager at GWR responsible for the strategic direction of the business’s customer relationship marketing. She is a member of Women in Transport helping to support, collaborate and champion herself across the transport workforce, ensuring equality and fairness.

She has worked in rail for 10 years, previously leading CRM excellence in the automotive, finance and IT sectors. Rachel is passionate about spreading the word, helping others and making a difference. She recently won the Innovation award at GWR and was runner up at the Amazon Everywoman as a Leader in the Customer and Passenger category and shortlisted at NRA for Outstanding Personal Contribution.

She’s hugely excited to join the group and contribute her time to connect, support with more colleagues across the region and beyond.

I’ve worked with GWR for over 19 years, starting my career on board as a customer host, and then guard. I have now progressed my career into Project Management, and my first opportunity to project manage, was part of the team delivering the Exeter Depot Engineering and Operations Depot, this opportunity inspired my career change, and I moved into construction project management. I now work in Business Development, first as a Development Manager and now as the Senior Portfolio Manager where I lead a team of project managers and we deliver all GWR construction projects on our stations.

I have been the previous chair of GWR Women in Rail and look forward to my new challenge of being part of the Women in Rail South Steering Group. I aim to help inspire others to realise their ambitions in rail and gain the confidence to achieve all they want to achieve.

I have 24 years’ experience in the railway, guard, driver, driver learning manager and now a Team Manager for learning managers and sim managers at GWR.  I have 2 degrees, business and railway operations, so I can offer support if anyone needs advice on academic studies.  I have coaching experience if this is of interest too.  Outside of work I play golf being a member of St Pierre and I am keen to promote the sport for everyone if you fancy having a go.  And I have balanced family life with full time work.  So available for a friendly chat if needed.