{"id":193617,"date":"2025-04-01T13:55:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T03:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=193617"},"modified":"2025-04-01T13:55:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T03:55:40","slug":"tilt-trains-first-female-driver-inspires-others-to-join-male-dominated-rail-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=193617","title":{"rendered":"Tilt train’s first female driver inspires others to join male-dominated rail industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sitting at the controls of Australia’s fastest train, Nicole Sempf’s workplace is vastly different from her last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Sempf switched from a desk job to driving trains and, in 2011, at just 27, became the first woman to drive Queensland’s high-speed passenger Tilt Train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Driving the Tilt Train was something I thought I’d probably never do because Dad used to say it was a really hard depot to get into,” Ms Sempf said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I was surprised that I got the opportunity at the younger age that I did \u2026 it’s been the best thing. I’m really proud of it.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While her love of trains runs deep with her grandfather, father and uncle also train drivers, she admits entering the male-dominated field came with some apprehension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I had come from an office job where I wore a skirt and heels and daily make up and I thought, ‘How am I going to fit into this world?'”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ms Sempf said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I probably didn’t realise that it was so uncommon for there to be women [in the rail industry] \u2026 but it was very welcoming.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women wanted in rail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Women account for 10.6 per cent of Queensland Rail (QR) train drivers and 28 per cent of the railway workforce in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Australian Railway Association wants more women drivers to join up. (ABC News: Kym Agius)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the Australian Railway Association’s general manager for rail supply chains and diversity, Natalie Currey, said improving those statistics was vital to fill the 70,000 vacancies in the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Women can’t be what they can’t see,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ms Currey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Often rail has a perception of being blokey and dirty and old. So we’re trying to stop or change those perceptions because that’s not the reality.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ARA is developing a code of conduct \u2014 the first of its kind for the industry \u2014 to set expectations for “healthy, diverse and inclusive” organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Called the Rail Gender Equity Charter, it is one of 10 recommendations made in the Progressing Gender Equity in the Australasian Rail Industry Report, released by the ARA and National Women in Transport in July 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Natalie Currey says they want to see more women in the industry. (Supplied: Australasian Railway Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“We are really facing a retirement cliff,” Ms Currey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ve got an aging workforce in the Australian and New Zealand rail industry, so we really want to see our younger people come into the industry and see more females represented in the workforce as well.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drivers enjoy the ‘wow’ factor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the Bundaberg depot, 400 kilometres north of Brisbane, Ms Sempf, Lisa Stevenson and Tina Mullins are three of the Queensland Rail’s 101 female divers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Stevenson says she knew from the age of eight that she wanted to be a train driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I caught the Sunlander [train] up here with my family,” Ms Stevenson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I met a train driver and he showed me around a diesel loco and I fell in love with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even early wake-up calls cannot dim her joy at finding her dream job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Stevenson says the daily sunrises offset the early morning wake-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tilt Train drivers left to right, Nicole Sempf, Lisa Stevenson and Tina Mullens love their job. (ABC Wide Bay: Nikki Sorbello)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“We basically wake up very early in the morning about 3:30am, get on the 4:20 train, prep the train, take it out onto the platform and then we allow the passengers to board and then we drive off into the sunrise,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“You never get tired of them \u2026 it’s a beautiful journey we love coming into Brisbane at about 9am.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For colleague Tina Mullins, a train driver of 12 years, Bundaberg is the last stop in her 30-year career with Queensland Rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said people had a misconception that the often complex work was easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What they don’t realise is that you need to know every speed board, every curve, more or less every bit of every track that we travel over, and that takes time,” Ms Mullins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Sempf agrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I think a lot of people think we just sit up the front and press some buttons and it drives itself because there’s no steering wheel, but every day is a challenge,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You need problem-solving \u2014 If there’s breakdowns, if there’s weather events. There’s so many variables.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Semph said she still loved the “wow” factor of driving the Tilt Train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s also the waves we get from people on the side of the track as we fly past, [which] is special, and the smiles when we add a little toot of the horn to say we appreciate the waves,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“A proud moment was when my eight-year-old niece recently told me that she wanted to be a train driver one day like me.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting at the controls of Australia’s fastest train, Nicole Sempf’s workplace is vastly different from her last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":193618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,47],"tags":[7465,16168],"class_list":["post-193617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-queensland-rail","category-rail-news","tag-queensland","tag-tilt-train"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t