Bessie Matthews is a freight train driver for GB Railfreight. In 2022, while working as a trainee shunt driver for Freightliner, she was declared the RailStaff Awards’ Rail Person of the Year. The Award celebrates the success of the rail industry’s most extraordinary individuals and nominees are all people who have overcome adversity in their jobs, in their lives, and in helping others.

Bessie joined Freightliner in August 2021 and had immediately impressed her colleagues. While taking on a new role and all the extensive training that entails, she jumped at the opportunity to participate in other activities including playing a role in the Freightliner female Train Driver’s forum.

She was also nominated for her active role in promoting career opportunities for women in rail, as well as supporting Samaritans and other rail-related charities. She was the Samaritan’s top fundraiser for Samarathon in 2021 and was a key ambassador for its Christmas Star campaign. On top of this, she has built a wide social media following through X.com, helping promote and raise awareness of rail as a great career path. She tells us about her shock at taking home the prize and her career journey since that night.

How did it feel to win the Rail Person of the Year award?

I’m still shocked that I won – I wish I could truly describe how it feels. Unreal is most likely the best word for it. I was up against some immensely talented, selfless, hardworking people, so it really came as a surprise when my name was called out. I was shaking!

How has your career developed since?

Since winning the award I have progressed on to the mainline and joined GB Railfreight. I’m very grateful to have been looked after so well by both companies. Winning the award definitely put my name out there further than I ever expected, with strangers on the railway congratulating me on my win. It was surreal. I made great friends on the night too, and they’re still my friends today. The RailStaff awards, my nomination, and then my win further inspired me to carry on with all the things I was nominated for: rail safety awareness, charity work and fundraising, advocacy for more women on the railway, and so on.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m very happy in my career at the moment, and I can see myself doing this forever; but when I’m a little old lady with ballast hip, and I’m deaf from the thrash of the freight, I would love to be at the front of the classroom. What a wonderfully rewarding thing it would be to teach the future generations of drivers.

What makes the RailStaff Awards so special?

It’s so important to recognise the ‘little guy’ for all the work they do because, my goodness, the work is a lot and it’s hard! I’m so proud of our industry and what everyone working within it gets up to. We’re a mish mash of beautiful souls with thousands of stories and an eagerness to be better. I love that the RailStaff Awards sees employees for who they are – real people.