Hannah Dadds, credited with a “pioneering role” for women working on the London Underground, qualified as a District line driver in 1978.
She had worked in the stations for eight years before her promotion to driver, starting on a wage of £13 a week in 1969. That’s in stark contrast to the £865 a week raked in by today’s tube train drivers.
Dadds, who died after a long bout of illness, had recounted some sexist attitudes towards her, but she passed through tube driver’s school quickly and was soon riding the rails.
In 1990, Diane Udall, a driver who went on to become The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) branch secretary, said of women working on the tube: “The problem is getting accepted in the first place; you need skin like crocodile hide.”
Howard Collins, chief operating officer at London Underground, said: “Hannah Dadds changed the working life of women on the tube and the way in which many people viewed tube drivers.
“I had the great privilege of working with Hannah … in the Eighties. [She was] positive and sensible about [her] role and pioneering responsibility.
Collins added: “She was an esteemed member of our workforce and my condolences go out to her family.”
