Dan Lill, Chair of Aspect, Represents WMT At Trainbow Europe

This weekend, Network Rail and our partners at the Rail Delivery Group, invited the Chair of our LGBT+ network group, Dan Lill, to attend a Trainbow Europe conference at the National Railway Museum, York. We are very proud that Dan Lill represented West Midlands Trains at the conference and collaborated with other industry colleagues at this workshop.

The conference was an opportunity for us to collectively share, learn and develop plans for our organisations across Europe, as our railways seek to be at the forefront of LGBT+ inclusion.

The event was supported by Chief Executive at Network Rail, Andrew Haines, and was attended by senior executives from across the UK railway industry, as well as representatives from Her Majesty’s Government’s Department for Transport. There were also attendees from France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and representatives from BTP, TfL and other TOCs including GWR, GTR, SouthEastern and Scotrail.

The key-note speaker was rail historian and TV personality, Tim Dunn, who shared an excellent speech about Pride liveries on trains and the impact they have on people, both good and bad. It was an interesting and entertaining talk and we'll hopefully be able to arrange for Tim to do it again in the future, for the benefit of all our members.

Dan posted on WMT’s Aspect yammer group and said the following:

“I was honoured to represent West Midlands Trains at Trainbow Europe this weekend. One thing I want to share with you all is how emotionally empowering the experience was. I felt a mixture of proudness, empowerment and sadness.

The sadness for me comes from knowing that so many of our community’s elders died in awful conditions with an appalling lack of medical care, empathy and humanity, dying feeling the shame from dying of the disease. So many rioted and stood up for the freedoms we have today. So, with this in mind I want to say as a community we need to do better, stand together in strength and unity, support our community. Standing as one for greater rights and more equality. When you see someone facing discrimination, if safe to do so support them, report the hate crime and take a moment to listen, learn and empower the person to live as their true authentic self.”

It's also great to see that Birmingham Pride returns this year and takes place from Friday 24th September – Sunday 26th September. You can find out more here.