Jana Klemova interviewed by Ash Read

Made:
2025-05-22

Interview with Jana Klemova recorded by Ash Read on 22 May 2025. Duration: 1 hour 21 minutes 21 seconds.

[Start of interview, track 01] Childhood in Slovakia, family, school and education, growing up in a communist country, and impact of the borders opening, greater movement of goods and people [00:06:00] Slovakian school system, pressure to attend university and choosing instead to become an au pair in the U.K.; moving to the UK, experience as an au pair and wanting to stay because the U.K. felt freer and more LGBTQIA+ positive than home. [00:12:18] Realising she was LGBTQIA+ around age 16, earlier relationships with boys, football, meeting more gay women, developing feelings for girls, and sexuality influencing her decision to work abroad. [00:15:07] Living a double life, not being out to family until later, admiration for an openly gay tennis player, and early work after au pairing, including golf club management, kitchen/bar work, and kitchen porter work. [00:20:18] Returning to Slovakia to care for her mother after a stroke, living in Prague with a girlfriend, working as a tennis coach, then returning to the U.K.; work at Ladbrokes before a lesbian friend recommended railway work. [00:25:05] Applying for and getting a Signal Maintenance Technician (SMT) job, training in railway infrastructure, crossings, routes, faults and repairs, and working in an all-LGBTQIA+ SMT team from 2008 to 2012. [00:30:00] Coming out to family after deciding not to move back because of an important relationship; family reaction, sister supportive, father calm and inquisitive, mother initially angry but later supportive. Reflects on wishing she had told them sooner. [00:35:37] Leaving SMT work to become Mobile Operations Manager (MOM), responding to incidents, lone working, leading emergency workers, Rail Incident Officer qualification, fatalities as a difficult regular part of MOM role, and shift work affecting personal life while caring for her mother. [end of track 01]

[Track 02] Describes MOM as one of the best railway jobs, with freedom, variety and responsibility; being the only female Wessex MOM, feeling she had something to prove as gay, foreign and a woman in rail, and leading serious incidents including a Waterloo derailment. [00:06:30] Waterloo derailment, investigation and recovery, plus incidents including fires, flooding, derailments, fatalities, trespassers and animals. [00:10:40] Moving from MOM to Mobile Incident Officer (MIO) after caring responsibilities and bereavement during Covid-19 became overwhelming; MIO role with the Emergency Intervention Unit, British Transport Police, and major, welfare and fatality incidents, with no night shifts. [00:15:00] Personal life, sport, volunteering with Surrey County Council youth work, marriage, holidays, and a podcast with a lesbian friend addressing gaps in public knowledge around LGBTQIA+. [00:18:40] Meeting her wife through tennis, friendship becoming a relationship, their wedding, and being open about her wife and sexuality at work. [00:23:30] Few serious experiences of homophobia, challenging discriminatory behaviour, educating people, Network Rail LGBTQIA+ network Archway, other staff networks, and becoming a Diversity and Inclusion Champion. [00:28:00] Pride events through Archway, preference for smaller Prides, difficult experiences with a local Pride organisation, continued LGBTQIA+ youth work, and the importance of Pride after the hostile Supreme Court ruling (April 2025), including support and advocacy for transgender people. [00:35:20] Pride as protest, hopes for supportive official guidance, concern that the U.K. is moving backwards for LGBTQIA+ people, anxiety around using gendered facilities after the ruling as a a masculine appearing cis-gender woman, and concern that transgender women and gender non-conforming people may face increased challenge or suspicion. [end of interview]

This interview was made as part of People Pride and Progress (PPP) project. The project was initiated in 2023 to record the stories and memories of the LGBTQIA+ community in a new oral history archive over two years. It aimed to connect past, present and future through intergenerational interviews, offering opportunities for colleagues across all parts of the rail industry to connect, reflect on and learn from each other’s lived experiences while creating an archive of oral history interviews.

Details

Category:
Corporate Archive
Collection:
People, Pride and Progress
Object Number:
2026-159
type:
oral history interview
rights:
Science Museum Group
credit:
People Pride and Project Archive created by the Science Museum Group, made possible with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the players of the National Lottery

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