Mid-Day Anniversary Special: India’s first woman train driver who led the way for over 1,800 others

Surekha Yadav, Woman train driver 

Women loco pilots on the Indian Railways today have gone up fivefold since the past decade. As of 2024, 1,828 women loco pilots work with the national transporter, a jump from 371 a decade ago. About four decades ago, there were nil when Surekha Shankar Yadav née Surekha Ramchandra Bhosale made up her mind to apply for the then “unusual” job. This is the story of India’s OG (original) woman train driver.

Born in 1965 and grown up in Satara, Yadav is India’s first woman train driver, the first to drive a local train. She drove the first ladies special in 2000. She drove the Deccan Queen in 2011. In 2023, she piloted the Vande Bharat Express, a semi-high-speed train, from Solapur to Mumbai.

Yadav said, “I had been brought up at Satara in a large family. I was the oldest among five siblings. My father was a farmer. After initial schooling at St Paul Convent High School, Satara, I took up vocation training and studied Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Government Polytechnic at Karad. As I completed diploma, I thought, I could complete BSc in mathematics and take up Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) to become a teacher. I spotted an advertisement for a job fitting my qualification in Indian Railways. I applied for it in 1986, and my recruitment journey began. After a slew of examinations, I got selected,” she recalled.

“After a six-month training, I was appointed as ‘assistant loco pilot’ on a goods train. My first train was L-50 to be taken from Kalyan to Wadibunder at Sandhurst Road and back.”  Supported by her policeman husband and two sons, she said, “It is all a balancing act. I get a very little time window and working odd hours, it detains you at remote places. My family has been very supportive. In Mumbai, commuting by any mode at any hour is not a problem. But it remains a problem at remote places and smaller stations.”

Yadav said, “I have driven all kinds of trains. Taking the Rajdhani Express will be a challenge. Negotiating the ghat sections of Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Nashik, needs immense concentration and attention. Driving a local train there are challenges  like facing people, agitations and what not. But we are trained to remain cool and that helps maintain composure.”

She added, “The most memorable moment for me, however, was when I first drove the ladies special local train. The atmosphere was electric. It was a train for the women, by a woman and I will not forget that day forever,” she signed off.

2011
She drove the Mumbai -Pune Deccan Queen