As part of a strategy to revitalize its image, the nation’s largest and oldest railway system announced that women would also serve as train conductors on express trains.
The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) yesterday introduced four new female conductors and one male conductor. All have just completed the training for train conductors.
TRA Deputy Director-General Chang Ying-huei (張應輝) said the administration had about 500 train conductors, adding that the position was predominantly held by men.
“To become a train conductor, one must pass the civil servant examination for senior sales clerk and receive training afterward,” Chang said.
The average age of TRA employees is 48 years old. The average age of the four female conductors, however, is less than 30.
Twenty-four-year-old Hsu Rui-ting (徐瑞婷) is the youngest of the five new conductors. A mass communications major, Hsu has a grandfather who worked at the TRA’s mechanical depots and her father is a TRA employee as well. Surprised to find a young and pretty female conductor on TRA trains, some passengers had taken pictures of Hsu and posted them online.
Lee Chao-ping (李兆平) was a doctoral candidate in the department of civil engineering at National Chiao Tung University. His father is a stationmaster at the TRA’s Changhua Station.
“My father is a ‘railway dad’ and was hardly at home when we were young,” he said. “He had to work overtime whenever there was a national holiday.”
Last year, he decided to put his doctoral degree on the backburner and took the government exam.
Lee said he “did the right thing,” adding that he had a greater sense of achievement in helping a train passenger than being a part-time college instructor.
Aside from Lee and Hsu, the other three new conductors have either worked previously in the private sector or managed to work their way up from base-level positions within the TRA. One has a master’s degree in political economy from National Cheng Kung University.
The TRA said it had recruited 11 new employees for its train operation department through last year’s government exam.
The employees will serve as train conductors first before being transferred to other positions, it said.
The national railway service has an aging workforce as a result of a 10-year hiring freeze.
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