Yekothieli in a train driving simulator.
"I lost friends on October 7, and I wanted so badly for the course to start so that I would have a routine"/ Israel Railways
Batal Yekuthiali (30) from Kiryat Ono is used to looking at the Israel train passing by through the bus windshield, while standing in traffic jams as a Dan company bus driver.
Very soon she will board the railroads of the Israel Railways as a locomotive driver, a position she hopes will be followed by more and more women.
She will currently be the fourth locomotive driver overall out of hundreds.
She started her path in the world of public transportation in Tal Kaal as a criminology student.
"I started working as a bus driver as part of a student union scholarship, I went through a theoretical and practical course and got on the road. Last summer, after four years on the bus, I applied for a locomotive driver course at the Israel Railways. I told myself that if I wasn't accepted then I would turn to another professional direction, and here I am enjoying it every moment".
Batal was supposed to start the course on October 15th, but the course was postponed in light of the events of the Shabbat in October.
"I lost several friends, and I wanted this course so badly to start so that I would have a routine that would help me get out of sadness and depression and not sink. Since I started my journey on the train, I am in constant activity and learning so much about the world of trains. People think that the driver does nothing but sit in the locomotive, But they don't know that a locomotive driver is responsible for so many things at the same time."
Batal's family is very supportive and proud of her decisions, and are surprised by the stations she goes through in life with success and distinction.
"My mother already says that after the bus and the train, the next step is a pilot's license, but I totally see myself continuing on the train and progressing, maybe in the future I will even guide novice drivers like myself at the train's training center. I get to places every day and see landscapes that I don't think I would have gotten to If it weren't for the train, the work is fascinating and beyond that, it's fun to feel the speeds, the control over this great tool called a train, and especially to bypass the traffic jams and see them from the other side."
And on the days she drove the bus.
"My mother already says that after the bus and the train, the next step is a pilot's license"/Dan company
Every year Israel Railways receives about 2,500-3,000 resumes per year for the position of locomotive driver.
In the end only one in a hundred is accepted.
If the CV is relevant, it is checked that the candidate meets the threshold requirements in terms of education (full matriculation or higher).
If so, filter according to the occupational profile and experience.
After that, you are invited to an assessment center where basic personality suitability for the position is checked.
Those who pass are directed to a testing day at a diagnostic institute where interpersonal abilities and cognitive skills are tested.
After that, they pass a European driving skills test that tests elements that are critical to the role of drivers, for example the ability to react in changing situations.
Later there are personal interviews and a security and medical qualification.
The entire process takes 4 months, and at the end the train chooses who will be admitted to the training course.
The job itself can suit fathers and mothers, there are shifts that start very early in the morning and you can also finish very early, and have time to reach the children.
Like the world of transportation, Bethel is also no stranger to the "masculine" environment.
"I've always been in a male work environment, even on the bus, but I see myself just like everyone else. More than that, I'm happy to be in this position because I want them to see that a woman can also work in professions that are labeled as "masculine" in society. Today, there are a total of three female locomotive drivers At the Israel Railways, one of them is the head of a team of drivers, and when I met them they made me feel that I was in the right place. I wish that in the future more women would come to the position, including all railway professions. I think that in the social perception, driving a locomotive, and also a bus, sounds like a male role, but it is completely only In the head - as soon as you try and experience it up close, you realize that everything is possible."
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Israel Railways
Women's Day