GENDER DIVERSITY:

The Big Rail Diversity Challenge took me totally out of my comfort zone and into a zorb, onto a Segway, part of a human table football game among other things. And you know what? I had a great time, worked in a team with people from my company I don’t normally come across and found some hidden talents… thank you!

Thanks so much for the chance to take part in such an amazing day. The wide range of opportunities to stretch our collective brains and to take part in some great physical challenges made for an exceptional day – enjoyable and all in an incredibly worthy cause. Highly recommended.

TSP would like to thank you for organising the Big Rail Diversity Challenge. We think it is important to support this message and the events and everyone enjoyed participating. The “Strengthener’s of the Lost Arch” greatly enjoyed the day and learned a great deal about teamwork, driving a virtual Lamborghini and who to rely on if we ever need an emergency shelter! Thank you for your hard work.

The team from Fusion were thrilled to have had the opportunity to take part in such a fantastic concept. It’s refreshing to see events like the Big Rail Diversity Challenge taking place. Proving that you can raise the profile of serious agendas but in an innovative and team-spirited fashion. Our thanks go to Women in Rail for hosting this event on behalf of the industry and Nimble Media Ltd for the seamless organisation.

The Big Rail Diversity Challenge tested everything including; speed, creativity, memory, hand-eye coordination, fitness, concentration, logical reasoning, ingenuity, engineering talent and of course our team working skills as all activities required everyone to take part, occasionally with many of the team blindfolded! The event provides the opportunity to build on working relationships and learn and improve some of our ‘soft skills’. Many of which are translatable to the office environment, for example, communication, planning, adaptability, and reasoning

On behalf of the YRP team, I wanted to thank you, both of you and the rest of the organising team, for putting together such a brilliant initiative. The team and I had so much fun, engraving fantastic memories (and pictures!) and was an excellent team-building experience. This is without forgetting the purpose of the event – YRP committee members know the values of diverse teams – whether it is gender, age, nationalities, background and even professions!

Aiming to bring together the entire rail industry under one roof is quite an undertaking. Cleverly though, the organiser’s Women in Rail and Nimble Media managed to do this by simply getting the biggest roof they could find… an aircraft hangar in fact! Highlights of the day included the pedal-powered house-kart challenge and the exhausting spider web climb, plus of course bumping into old colleagues from years gone by. In essence, if these hundreds of people represent the rail industry, then it’s in fine fettle.

What a fabulous event! Such a unique opportunity for teams to have so much fun away from formalised environments. Everyone is on a level in their sports kit and team shirts, no suits or uniforms. The Nimble team did an incredible job and no detail was missed. They created an incredibly fun atmosphere on a massive scale. The room was full of laughter and team spirit. We can’t wait to be there next year- if they will have us!!’

I just want to say thank you for last Friday. An absolutely brilliant day and we can’t wait to be part of it again next year!

Railway Children was delighted to be involved with the Big Rail Diversity Challenge. A fantastically well-organised event that generated so much positive energy amongst all the teams. A great team-building and networking opportunity for all involved. Well done Nimble Media and Women in Rail!

The team and I really enjoyed the Rail Diversity Challenge 2017. It was a great way to meet colleagues working across the country as well as to meet with customers and suppliers in an informal setting. The team spirit started strong as we split into two mini-groups to design our soapbox racer! The ladies took the front, the gents took the back, and we supped up our kart ready for the race track. Sadly we didn’t get across the line first, but we did keep that teamwork strong throughout the day. The human table football really brought us together, with a 5-aside match. Team members swapped at halftime, but the support and advice from each half of our spectating team were wonderful. Each goal scored was cheered as if we had been following our league team.

I loved the whole day! A diverse eclectic, committed and energetic bunk of individuals came together to deliver an outstanding result that we were all very pleased about.

To be honest, myself and the rest of the team had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up to the Big Rail Diversity Challenge but we had an absolutely amazing time and wouldn’t have missed it for the world. The event itself was brilliantly managed and ran like absolute clockwork. I can genuinely say, on behalf of myself and the rest of the team, we never stopped laughing from the start to the finish and the event was THE BEST team-building experience(s) we’ve ever had. We were all set to sign up for next year’s event before we’d even jumped on the train home…which is a marl of what a great day we’d had!

I would like to congratulate Nimble Media and the team on an amazing event, the activities were extremely enjoyable and really well put together. Looking forward to next years already.

I just wanted to send a mail to tell you what an absolutely fantastic time the Virgin Trains Team had last Friday. The event was amazing, the staff were great and the organisation was second to none. We will definitely be back next year

A fantastic event that allowed all members of our very mixed ability and age team to shine, bond and have fun whilst supporting a very worthy cause.

A fabulous way to promote and celebrate diversity in our industry; met some great people and challenges had some real team-building benefits.

It was a tough but fun day. I really enjoyed being part of a diverse team and competing in a fun friendly environment. We were able to win some of the challenges due to great teamwork and diverse skillsets!

This was the first time I had the pleasure of attending this event. I have to say it was the most fun I have had in a very long time. We didn’t stop laughing all day. Would recommend this event to all and I am hoping I can get onto it again next year.

Exciting challenges and great fun, can’t wait for next year!

I would like to say what a fantastic day we at East Midlands Trains had. We made new friends but most of all we bonded as a team. The event that you put on was fantastic so well planned and organised with the main theme of having fun so well done.

The Big Rail Diversity Challenge was one of the best days of my career so far! The teamwork and communication required meant for a brilliant, constructive day with colleagues, as well as it is being extremely fun and a great networking event with all of the other companies in the room. It was absolutely incredible to see such diversity at the event and the value added as a result. A very well run-day and brilliant opportunity which I would encourage everyone to get involved with!

It was a tremendous experience and a very productive day with many challenges.

Absolutely fabulous event and exceeded every expectation that I had. A great chance to meet new people and honestly couldn’t have had a better day! Bring on next year!

Great day enjoyed by all promoting a very worthy cause.

We had 9 people in the team and in a lot of the events, not every member got an opportunity to participate. All of the sporty ones were fine, it is the other ones like safecracker and catapult challenge.

A fun day out with work colleagues. A good mix of physical and problem-solving activities, with an overall positive message of promoting diversity in the rail industry.

Fantastic day out, promoting a brilliant cause. Fun, friendly environment which is a very worthwhile visit!

I enjoyed the diversity of the tasks and working with people I don’t usually work with in the office.

This was our first time putting a team together for the Big Rail Diversity Challenge. We had colleagues from site and office and although a number of us talk to our site staff via phone or email this was the first chance, we got to meet face to face and bond which the day really helped us to do and work as a team and support one another. We all had a fantastic day and can’t wait to do it again! Although inflatable sports are a lot harder that they look!! Thanks for a great day – so well organised!!

Fantastic day last week, the event is getting bigger and better every year. Well done to you and the team.

Great event which was well organised with opportunities to network with a diverse range of people.

A fun-packed day with challenges to suit every member of our team. I struck up friendships with new colleagues I hadn’t even met yet, and probably wouldn’t have it not been for this.

It was a fantastic event, with lots of enthusiastic teamwork, as well as some healthy competition. The day was an ideal opportunity to connect with colleagues and it was great to see so many companies coming together to celebrate diversity across the railway.

The Big Rail Diversity Challenge was an excellent opportunity to meet people from other sectors of the industry in a fun and competitive environment. I’d definitely do it again.

Great inclusive event for all.

A well-organised event full of energy.

The best day at ‘work’ you’ll have!

Loved it!! Laughed all day!

The day was fantastic, well organised and good fun I would recommend people take part in next year’s event. A really fun day.

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to you and everyone who organised the fantastic Big Rail Diversity Challenge. We all had a superb experience. The biggest compliment to you and your team I think, was even thought I was full of aches and pains on an early shift on the Platform on Friday, when a colleague asked how it went my response was “if I got a call today to do it all again tomorrow, I would be booking my tickets and I think most of my teammates would say the same. So, a HUGE thank you from everyone, I look forward to next year’s event, but think there will be a lot more people volunteering when they here of our experience.” – “As a 55-year-old male I approached the day with caution, but as it went on, I threw myself into every event with the enthusiasm of a teenager. LOVED IT.

A really enjoyable day, full of amazing networking and a brilliant diverse mixture of talent from the Rail industry.

It was a fantastic, fun and challenging day. I learnt a lot about myself, what I can achieve with encouragement and sheer determination, even when feeling exhausted.

The Big Rail Diversity is an amazing event & one I have to fight with colleagues to get a place because we all love taking part, I have met some amazing people on every occasion and the event coordinators are amazing people who go out of their way to make sure every issue is sorted with relative fuss. It’s an absolute honour to be a part of something that not only promotes Equality & Diversity but also promotes being fun at work, as sometimes working in such a serious discipline it’s easy to get bogged down by the pressures, this is a way for us to connect as a team & have that fun we sometimes crave.

I have worked in the industry for 30+ years and it is definitely the best cross-industry event I have been a part of.

A fantastic, fun-filled day guaranteed to make positive memories with your colleagues that you will treasure forever.

Thanks to all the team at Nimble Media for their fantastic efforts in pulling together the 2019 Rail Big Diversity Challenge. The day was a huge success and a big push towards the continued improvement of gender diversity in the rail industry.

Highlight of the year! A fantastic and well-organised event, celebrating everything great about the rail industry.

BRDC is the ideal ”day out of the office” type of event, bringing everyone together to take part in a challenge in which everyone is a winner. We laugh, bond, exercise and increase our network.

A big thank you to Vicky, Geena, Harry and all the rest of the team at Nimble Media. A big part of my culture, from New Zealand, is something we call ‘Manaakitanga’ which is looking after one another. From start to finish, I felt more like I was at home than at work because the Nimble Media team really looked after me. There wasn’t a moment where I wondered what I was doing because they had already organised it all brilliantly. I look forward to our event next year!

A real pleasure to work with Women in Rail and Nimble Media at the Big Rail Diversity Challenge – a great opportunity to promote our “Look Beyond the Obvious” campaign across the variety of teams who visited our challenge! Brilliantly organised event that has re-emerged from lockdown even stronger and bigger. Well done to all involved and thank you for allowing us to present an award. Roll on next year!

We had a brilliant day as always. We didn’t know if some of the activities would be stripped bac because of covid restrictions but they weren’t and like you say with the past 12-18 months it was so good to see people face to face. We had a lot of giggles, and we obviously one an award for the first time which we are thrilled with.

I would love to continue to take part in this every year and will be in touch once I’ve spoken to our senior leadership team as I’m sure you are aware there are currently some changes going on in the rail industry with GBR.

I had a great time yesterday with everyone from “Team EDI.” It was wonderful to socialise the night before and make new friends. But what I really have had chance to reflect on is how Siemens really are #OneTeam. Everyone took part and after a long day of fun I’d love to say my thank yous for being able to be a part of it.

I am completely with you, a fabulous day out, important for many, many reasons. It did my mental health wonders, the challenges are fabulous, and if Lynn will have me back next year, my name will be back on the list, 3rd year in a row. Although less than a week on, id still say never again! Found out i had muscles where i didnt know! And a team of people i can trust, relate to, and now approach throughout all areas of the business. Thank you for what you do! Please have Soul back with the Hakka too! That is amazing!

This week I took part in the Big Rail Diversity Challenge 2021 in Newark with the Alstom Spares R Us dream team
That was such fun and such a good occasion to promote diversity and team spirit at the same time. Also a big opportunity to catch up with colleagues I hadn’t seen since the pandemic started.
Diversity is nowadays a key element for success in both business and private lives, inclusiveness is what we need to embrace!

I thought the level of professionalism that Nimble Media brought to the event was extraordinary, every single member of your team was a real pleasure to deal with, and there were staff everywhere at all times. The event ran smoothly from start to finish, and both the teams from CPMS-Egis absolutely loved the day, the weather was kind which also helped. Thank you so much for everything Nimble did to make the day truly memorable.

Great work by my colleagues from @ArupUK taking part in the Big Rail Diversity Challenge today, completing a series of fun, challenging team activities promoting the @WomeninRail message “Gender Diversity: Better for People, Better for Business, Better for Rail.”

Great work by my colleagues from @ArupUK taking part in the Big Rail Diversity Challenge today, completing a series of fun, challenging team activities promoting the @WomeninRail message “Gender Diversity: Better for People, Better for Business, Better for Rail.”

This week, #Thales were thrilled to enter a team into the Big Rail Diversity Challenge! Run by @WomeninRail the Challenge is a fun-filled event, allowing organisations in #rail to demonstrate their commitment to #diversity within the industry.

A huge thank you to Big Rail Diversity Challenge and Women in Rail for hosting what was a fantastic day at our first challenge event this week.

From balloon making to hungry hippos, from quad biking to It’s a Knockout, the whole team pulled together to support this fantastic event.

Unfortunately we didn’t win this year but word on the street is that Anthony Singleton is already booked on to a balloon making course in preparation for next year!

Our Managing Director, Tim O Sullivan thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s Big Rail Diversity Challenge, saying “What a great day celebrating all that is diverse and wonderful about this great industry. A pleasure to be part of team ‘Euston, we have a problem’. Huge credit to the superb team Skanska for a great day, thank you for having me!”.

Congratulations to the energetic ‘Morgan Sindall Infrastructure Mallard’s’ who won the Collaborative Team Award at the Big Rail Diversity Challenge.
Not only was it an enjoyable and entertaining day but a great way to celebrate diversity in the rail industry and support the important message behind the event.
#BigRail2021 #WomenInRail #ResponsibleBusiness

SYSTRA was delighted to take part in Women in Rail’s 6th Big Rail Diversity Challenge yesterday! Not only did our team love taking part in the activities and networking throughout the day, but we were also very proud to support the important message behind the event – “Gender Diversity: Better for People, Better for Business, Better for Rail”.

Team #Risktec had a brilliant time at #BigRailDiversityChallenge. Thank you to all the organisers for such a fantastic day.

The Taylor Airey Railblazers had a fantastic time at sunny Newark at the The Big Rail Diversity Challenge! Great to see so many organisations from the rail industry getting stuck in to all the challenges and making them so enjoyable. Big thanks to Women in Rail and Nimble Media Ltd for putting on such a great event! #diversity #equality #inclusion #railindustry #BigRail2022

Women Into Construction threw themselves (literally) into The Big Rail Diversity Challenge on Wednesday.

A fantastic event hosted by Women in Rail and Nimble Media Ltd with main sponsor Egis

Many thanks to Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture who kindly invited us to be part of their “HS2 All Stars” team. It was a very hot and fun day of teamwork and challenges – physical, mental and tactical.

They had a great turn out, despite the transport challenges, and truly celebrated gender diversity in the rail industry.

Gender Diversity – Better for people, better for business and better for rail.

G&W UK Success at the Big Logistics Diversity Challenge 2022!

Last week two G&W UK (Freightliner & Pentalver) teams took part in this year’s The Big Logistics Diversity Challenge at Newark Showground.

This is the third year in succession that our teams have participated in this event which promotes the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion across the logistics industry and highlights the business benefits attained when companies improve diversity by engaging teams in a series of fun physical, practical and mental team challenges.

The event brings together logistics professionals to look at how we can tackle diversity collaboratively and collectively in an informal setting and delivers a perfect platform for industry to share best practice, network, team build and help shape and promote what the profession should do next to support a more inclusive sector.

We’re delighted that our ‘Attack of the Wyoming Wookies’ team won two awards. The first award was for the best team name and the second for the best team collaboration in the Big Logistics Bake-off!

A massive congratulations to both teams ( The Rise of the Galactic Giants) for their efforts. As well as providing a great opportunity for colleagues across G&W UK to come together, it also demonstrates the importance of cross site and cross functional collaboration to achieve success.

Great day yesterday at The Big Rail Diversity Challenge representing Arcadis and tackling different challenges which highlighted the benefits of a diverse industry and the power of teamwork! #BigRail2022 #INWED22

On Wednesday last week, I had the fantastic opportunity to represent Siemens Mobility ED&I at The Big Rail Diversity Challenge. This event had participants from companies across the Rail Industry and it allowed us to demonstrate team-building within our own groups, network with other companies and the part I enjoyed the most, to have fun!!

It was my first time attending and I absolutely love and recommend it!

Very happy and proud to be part of the Big Rail Diversity Challenge last week
Great opportunity to bring people together and promote the greatness of diversity whilst going through the 12 challenges and having fun with work colleagues
Third time in a row for me, supporting the Siemens Mobility teams this year and catching up with dear colleagues from the industry. Ready for BRDC 2023!

Last week I was fortunate enough to be involved in the Big Rail Diversity Challenge with Arcadis…

Had a fantastic time with my colleagues and it was a brilliant way to continue to highlight the challenges the industry still faces around diversity and inclusion

First time joining team Arcadis (Orange) in supporting Women in Rail at the The Big Rail Diversity Challenge – and all I can say is what a FANTASTIC DAY it was!!

Promoting gender diversity, especially within the industry I work in have always been something I’ve supported greatly in the past, and such a remarkable event was a perfect example of how people from different backgrounds/gender can come together, unite, and have fun in ways we never expected before!
Can’t wait for the next one!!!

Big thanks to Women in Rail, Nimble Media Ltd, The Big Rail Diversity Challenge and Egis for organising such fun and unique event!

Also thank you to Arcadis (and Rail South) for your never ending support and commitment with Diversity and People First

Lots of disruption in our industry this week, and as we continue to support colleagues and ease disruption for our customers, we shouldn’t lose sight of other important issues.

It’s why I was very proud to be part of the Heathrow Express team at yesterday’s The Big Rail Diversity Challenge where we took the opportunity on a non-strike day to demonstrate our commitment to diversity within the industry, and the business benefits attained by establishing a gender diverse workforce.

Fun day at The Big Rail Diversity Challenge 2022 #bigrail2022 hosted by Women in Rail and Nimble Media Ltd with main sponsor Egis.

It was great to see so many companies from our industry celebrating gender diversity and highlighting the fantastic professionals building our railways.

The weather did not disappoint along with a full array of games challenging team work, collaboration, communication and the ability to recite dance moves to ABBA.

Thank you to fellow team members “HS2 All stars” from Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture, it as great to spend the day with you navigating through our challenges.

Gender Diversity – Better for people, better for business and better for rail.

Today my team, co-captained with Daniel Gunn, won the ‘Team Of The Year 2022’ (presented by Women In Rail) and the ‘Bring On The Beans’ award (presented by Railway Benefit Fund) at the Big Rail Diversity Challenge!

I am so proud of the team we had representing Alstom today. Everyone brought their best energy, encouragement of each other, courage to try new activities, and we all made it to the Newark Showgrounds for the event despite the difficulties commuting with the RMT strikes this week.

We did get a few excellent team photos showing us full of Alstom Super Star Spirit!

Congratulations to all the teams who made it down to Newark today, and thank you to Women In Rail for another flawless event!!

It was such a nice time, while doing [Look Beyond the Obvious] we were able to get the key security message from British Transport Police. I really enjoyed all the activities including this one 🙂

It was a cracking day and team effort supporting diversity in rail. I think I might need to work on my singing voice though, as it was less than desirable!

We are incredibly proud to be this years Headline Sponsor of the BRDC. Also a huge thank you to our French colleagues Hélène Bastian and Fanny Rubigny for travelling over to take part in the event.

Finally a massive thank you to Nimble Media Ltd for arranging yet another fantastic event.

Today we are participating in this year’s The Big Rail Diversity Challenge!
We are excited to be taking part in an event that promotes the importance of diversity across the rail industry.

Reflecting back on last week SUPER sunny The Big Rail Diversity Challenge. The TRU Winners came 29th out of 50ish teams, sooo much better then last week. The sun was shining, we all had such a laugh and I got to meet the one and only Dolly!!!

Was great to be part of the Big Rail Diversity Challenge yesterday. Might not have been an Alstom Super Star but the day was Rail-y Funny none the less.

Our teams had a great day at yesterday’s Big Rail Diversity Challenge, helping to raise awareness of gender diversity, through a series of fun yet challenging team activities, undertaken by teams with a 50 percent gender ratio split.

Thank you to everyone who took part, and thank you to the event organisers Women in Rail and Nimble Media for such a great day!

What a fun day spent at the Big Rail Diversity Challenge. To say I’ve only been at VolkerRail for a month, I felt so welcomed as part of one big team! Such a fun day of activities and the weather was gorgeous – couldn’t ask for anything better!

A week ago I had the pleasure to join my Arcadis colleagues in my first Big Rail Diversity Challenge.

The event was an incredible experience to know more about my close colleagues, meet new ones from Arcadis business and also from several rail businesses.

It was a unique opportunity, very well structured and organised event, and specially a fun day at work with a very important message to be delivered: “Gender Diversity: Better for people. Better for business. Better for rail”.

I would like to thank Women in Rail, Nimble Media Ltd and Egis for organising this event and Arcadis (and Rail South) for making Diversity and People First our daily routine.

Last week, AEGIS Rail participated in Big Rail Diversity Challenge and won ‘Women in Rail – Collaborative Work Award’ for working the most collaboratively throughout the challenges. Indeed, it was an amazing experience with the best team players.

The big rail diversity challenge is fun, rewarding and motivating. You gain valuable skill sets from a team building exercise as well as developing skills and confidence as an individual. I’m fairly new to the industry and this is an excellent way to make new friends and network with others.

A fantastic day out for work colleagues to build on working relationships with each other, enjoy each other company and have fun!
Wonderful to see so many different rail companies getting involved in the various challenges and making the day so enjoyable.
Big thanks to Women in Rail and Nimble Media Ltd for putting on such a great event every year!