Women make Tube run on time

Women Tube drivers are responsible for a dramatic increase in reliability on London Underground, it was revealed today.

They are less likely to take time off claiming to be ill or for other reasons, and they turn up for duty on time, says LU.

Tube chiefs today boasted of setting a new record of running more than 5,000 rush hour trains without a single cancellation due to missing drivers - and that is largely down to an increasing number of women recruits.

LU has concentrated recent advertising campaigns on attracting more female staff to the industry and particularly to the driver's cab LU also successfully used Cosmopolitan magazine for recruiting women into all grades.

An Underground spokeswoman said today that much of the Tube's improved service was down to the increasing number of female employees including drivers - in the past a role traditionally viewed as a male preserve. The spokeswoman said women recruits "have come from all walks of life and are keen and motivated.

"There is evidence that suggests that women are very reliable employees and they do tend to have a very good work ethic."

LU now has 176 female Tube drivers compared with fewer than 100 a year ago. Carrie Simpson, a former primary school teacher, said she has tripled her salary since becoming a driver on the Jubilee Line. "I was earning £10,000 and had no pension and now I get £29,000 plus a pension and about £1,000 in overtime," she said.

Ms Simpson, 41, said that both she and her female colleagues had been quickly accepted by male employees at Wembley Park depot where she is based but that passengers were still shocked at seeing a woman in the driving cab.

She said: "I told one man running past me at North Greenwich station that there was no need to rush because I was his driver and the train couldn't leave without me. He said: 'It's all right, I'll wait for the next one'."