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“Shane is a dedicated, passionate and hardworking person who has made a genuine and real difference to the lives of LGBT+ people locally and across our rail industry.
He has led Archway, Network Rail's LGBT+ employee network, for three years now and as the chair, he always inspires the team to do their best. And whenever there is an opportunity to make a difference, Shane jumps at the chance to help, always putting his all into it. He has ran numerous lunch and learns, given speeches, ran event and represented Archway and Network Rail at numerous conferences in the UK and abroad.
And on a personal note, what always strikes me about Shane, is how much he genuinely cares about others. He's always there, no matter what's going on and has an amazing ability to cheer you up. I've never known anyone like Shane before, he really is amazing.“
“Shane is passionate and committed to making the industry and company more inclusive. His is both supportive and challenging to the right levels to push for change in a collaborative way. His leadership of Archway our LGBT+ employee network has been outstanding. Whether colleagues are members or not we have all benefitted from the work he has led. He ensures sexual orientation and identity remain a key part of our D&I strategy and pushes us to do more.
On a personal level he is patient and personable and I have learnt a lot from him and he has been great at bringing me along on my journey to better understand challenges faced by the groups he represents.“
“Shane Andrews MBE is Archway's chair and has strived to raise the profile and visibility of LGBT+ colleagues within the rail industry.
Archway was created in 2013 with just a handful of members. Adopting the network as chair in 2019 there were around 600 members, but Shane's determination and commitment to the network has led to that being almost doubled, with 1074 members at time of writing this nomination.
During the pandemic, Shane ensured the Archway network were trailblazers, recognising the unique challenges of isolating for those who were in the closet or living alone and his team delivered a number of fantastic initiatives such as a weekly virtual coffee shop, a double page fact sheet on Covid in the LGBT+ community and made sure communications from the network were as frequent as once a week minimum to all members. He also recognised gaps in his own team and co-opted a trans individual to the team as the first ‘Gender Diversity Lead’, ensuring all within the LGBT+ community had a voice at his leadership table.
All Network Rail employee networks now work collaboratively thanks largely in-part to Shane and they truly represent and promote intersectionality. Shane's approach has been to educate, empower and connect the rail industry on all things LGBT+. He's collaborated across the industry with various companies, allowed rail industry colleagues from outside of Network Rail to join the network and successfully delivered a number of fundraising events, including raising £1000s for THT with events such as an It's a Sin celebration with KPMG and a talk with ex-rugby player Gareth Thomas OBE for World AIDS Day 2020. He's also raised over £1000 for AKT, from donating his own speaking fees and also offering Pride merchandise to rail enthusiasts in exchange for donations.
When fundraising isn’t involved, Shane works hard to ensure that prominent activists can share their experiences and have a voice within the railway and he’s managed to persuade individuals such as Lord Cashman, Lisa Power MBE, Lady Phyll and Peter Tatchell to take time out of their busy schedules to talk to LGBT+ colleagues and allies in the UK rail industry, allowing them to understand the challenges faced by the community.
Finally, Shane lead Network Rail’s communications plan for 2021 Pride month with a thought provoking and bold video entitled “Do I offend you?” being at the heart of the plan. The video was published across all of Network Rail’s social media every week at least once throughout Pride month, but not stopping there, he also arranged for every single cast member to have a mini-interview published, sharing the experiences of those who were LGBT+ in Network Rail. The campaign was a huge success in terms of viewing figures and positive comments both externally and internally, a highlight of which was the Chief of Staff commenting it was the best video that Network Rail has ever produced.
Shane also was one of the leads for 'Trainbow Europe', a UK-hosted conference bringing together LGBT+ railway leaders from right across Europe for a 2 day event at the National Rail Museum in York. The event was an opportunity to share best practice and find ways of working together to deliver for our LGBT+ colleague’s right across the continent.“
“Shane is the absolute driving force behind the every growing success of our LGBT+ employee network, Archway, and is at the forefront of LGBT+ inclusion for employees, passengers and customers throughout Britain's railways.
I have had the pleasure of working with Shane for a number of years and over that time his passion for diversity has only strengthened - whether for Archway or for diversity and inclusion more generally within Network Rail, especially in our Wales and Western Region.
Shane works in a highly collaborative manner, and nowhere is this clearer than in the charitable fundraising he has done in conjunction with other LGBT groups and the cross-industry events that he has led. As Archway's membership has grown so has the proportion of members drawn from TOCs, FOCs, supply chain and other industry bodies - reflective of Shane's drive to make Archway a network open to all.
The quality and breadth of events such as Archway National Conference, Rail Pride Fest, and Network Rail's powerful 'Do I Offend You?' marketing campaign are a testament to Shane's passion and knowledge.
Since taking over as Chair of Archway Shane has made the network more interactive - with social media and new ways for members to engage - whilst staying true to its ethos of 'educating, empowering and connecting', through events, training materials and activities that are making Network Rail more inclusive, making our employees more connected to one another and our people feel more empowered - whether they are LGBT+ or allies - to challenge negative behaviour and make NR an inclusive place to work.“
“With Shane's background in Diversity and Inclusion, his initiatives to support this topic shines in abundance. He is hard working, dedicated and strives to set the highest standards in his line of work. With the specialities he holds he has been a fantastic role model to follow by. He has managed to build multiple working collaborative relationships between many communities as well as train operating companies such as - Great Western Railway, supporting us with our ASPECT LGBTQ+ group. Whenever I have needed support with actions or ideas, Shane has never hesitated to help support me with ideas, strategies and has been an extended support network when building our momentum. With the recent successes we have achieved between ARCHWAY and ASPECT, I'm extremely pleased that we have been able to develop a working relationship to transfer points of interest and in doing so putting these ideas into reality and to become successful in the future.
It is evident that Shane demonstrates pure passion for this cause and for the wider Diversity & Inclusion strategy. With his hard work so far the future of our industry will be more inclusive of all diverse backgrounds and representing the communities that we serve together in the western region.“
“I started working with Shane in the pandemic - remotely working, our organisations agreed we wanted to broaden our relationship and partner ever further on all things LGBTQ. We ran a number of sessions on inclusion, and in particular, partnered on World AIDS Day to raise awareness and funds for Terrence Higgins Trust. He organised a talk from Gareth Thomas which will be one of my most memorable events from our partnership.
We met in person for the first time at a physical LGBTQ event hosted in our offices, with people from across the transport ecosystem. He was just as I assumed from our onscreen meetings - passionate, fearless and committed!
That was the start of a journey where we have become close allies on this agenda and have covered a lot of ground - he has presented at Pride events for my organisation and we have spoken jointly at a number of events on the topic of equality and inclusion.
At the Archway conference earlier this year, he announced the use of pronouns in email addresses of his organisation, which was a new initiative, and also announced we would be partnering on an initiative to raise £40k for Terrence Higgins Trust in their 40th year. Quite the target! His determination and commitment are ever present.
At London Pride, our organisations marched together with Terrence Higgins Trust in a show of love and support for those living with /impacted by HIV/AIDS. Something I might have only dreamt about happening a few years ago actually happened thanks to Shane, his Archway team, and the relationships that Shane has taken time to build - with authenticity and care - in my own organisation.
He has received homophobic attention due to his role, and took a brave decision to relay this on LinkedIn - stating that it isn’t enough to talk about the positive things - we need to remember why organisations like Archway and people like Shane are indeed still needed in our society today.
I was prouder than ever to know him when I saw this post - what an inspiration.“
“Shane is the Chair of Archway at Network Rail, the Rail industry's biggest LGBT network group.
Shane is an amazing role model for the LGBT community and is so inspirational with everything he has achieved with Archway.
No matter how busy Shane is, he always writes his weekly newsletter to all Archway members, letting them know about upcoming events, sharing personal stories and enabling others too as well and providing a sense of community for everyone, no matter who you are.
Shane continuously collaborates with other industry network group leads and EDI leads to promote the EDI agenda.
Shane has an amazing leadership team including his Deputy Chair, Harry adn they have been instrumental in bring colleagues from across the industry together for Rail Pride Festival, which was launched in 2020 and was a huge success.
This initiated the collaboration of industry colleagues on EDI matters, which continues after the formation of the Rail Unites for Inclusion group consisting of those passionate about EDI across the industry.
Well done Shane for everything you have done for Archway and for EDI across the industry. You are a very worthy contender for this award.“
“Just to say that my team and I had a fantastic night, (and no, not just because I won Rail Person of the Year ). Thought it was a great venue, fab food, entertainment & company - just a brilliant forum & event for the whole industry - wish you all many other successful years to come. It's obvious that really successful nights on all levels like this, don't just happen, congratulations & thanks to you for all your hard work in making it happen - you really deserve it!”
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