New class of female GO bus driver recruits making Metrolinx history
Posted March 21, 2022 3:01 pm.
Last Updated March 21, 2022 4:27 pm.
For the first time in Metrolinx’s 55-year history, the newest recruits to graduate their GO bus driver program are all women.
Lori Keenan and Lorna Jennings are two of the six females who graduated Friday, selected from over 1,000 applicants.
“At times it was intense, but we had the support of each other which really helped,” Lorie Keenan told CityNews.
Jennings adds, “It has been an exciting experience.”
Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said they have changed the recruitment process, eliminating barriers to be more attractive to women and it has helped.
“Metrolinx first wanted to look at our entire organization to encourage women to apply for different jobs and in specifics, we wanted to encourage people (women) to be bus drivers because disproportionately, they were male drivers,” said Aikins.
“We looked at all the barriers that prevented women from applying and then we tried to address those barriers.”
Some of the changes include how they wrote the ad to recruit drivers, hiring full-time bus drivers and paying for the driver’s test, which used to be paid for by the recruits. “Things like that made a difference. Last year, our classes were more than 50 per cent women,” said Aikins.
The six new women recruits will officially start driving at the end of the week. “This is a really big accomplishment for me because now I’m driving a commercial vehicle,” said Jennings. “I’m just happy to be part of the experience.”
“You can do anything. The word ‘can’t’ isn’t in our vocabulary,” said Keenan.
