All-women DB train to run from Berlin to Frankfurt for IWD
By Olivia Logan
Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, the “Female ICE 2.0” will run from Berlin to Frankfurt, staffed by an all-women team of Deutsche Bahn (DB) employees.
“Female ICE” returns for International Women’s Day 2025
On March 6, a Deutsche Bahn ICE train will make a special trip from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Frankfurt Haupbahnhof. Ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, the train will be staffed with an all-woman crew, on-board and at signal stops and train stations along the way.
After the train departs Berlin at 8am, a programme of talks and workshops will commence on-board, attended by a selection of DB employees and career advisors, politicians and “role models in STEM”, all of whom will give guests “valuable insights into their career paths, challenges and successes”.
Stopping off in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Leipzig, Erfurt, Eisenach and Fulda, the train will arrive in Frankfurt at 1.44pm. Participants will transfer to the “Female Bus”, taking them to the DB workshop in Frankfurt-Griesheim where the events will continue into the afternoon.
29,4 percent of Deutsche Bahn employees are women
With the “Female ICE” and other projects spotlighting women’s role in running DB, the Deutsche Bahn Women’s Network - a nationwide network of the rail operators' women employees - wants to make DB the “employer of the future”.
In 2009, just 20,8 percent of all employees at DB were women. In 2014, the Deutsche Bahn Women’s Network was founded, and in 2022, the first “Female ICE” ran from Munich. April 2024 saw DB break through the 55.000 mark of women working at the national rail provider.
But the figure still only amounts to 29,4 percent of all DB employees, and in DB maintenance workshops, operation centres and construction sites, women make up around just 10 to 20 percent of employees.
The Deutsche Bahn Women’s Network has now set a goal to increase the overall share of women working at DB to 40 percent by 2035.
Thumb image credit: travelview / Shutterstock.com
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Editor for Germany at IamExpat Media. Olivia first came to Germany in 2013 to work as an Au Pair. Since studying English Literature and German in Scotland, Freiburg and Berlin she has worked as a features journalist and news editor.Read more