Award-winning author and poet Patience Agbabi has visited Alstom’s Northern Line Traincare depot at Golders Green in North London.

The visit was in connection with Alstom’s wider Black History Month programme in the UK and Ireland. During her visit, Patience talked to the staff about her life, career, Black identity, and her love of trains.

Patience is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Around one hundred colleagues listened to an in-depth interview with her at the depot, whilst many more from Alstom’s 37 sites in the UK and Ireland joined in online.

During her interview, Patience discussed her journey as a writer, her inspiration as an author and poet, and discussed this year’s Black History Month theme of Standing in Pride and Power.

Born in London to Nigerian parents, Patience studied English Language and Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford.

In the 1990s, she joined the performance group Atomic Lip, described as poetry’s first pop group. After publishing several poetry collections, her first novel, Infinite, a time-travelling autistic teenager, was released in 2020.

Her books often include references to railways, and during her visit to Golders Green depot, she read an excerpt from her third novel, The Circle Breakers, where the main characters travel on a train in Victorian London.

” The Northern line is my favourite Underground line. I love how all its branches interact with each other like a complex plotline. So it was thrilling to share my train-inspired novel in person at Golders Green Depot, meet and eat with the workforce, and then get invaluable inside knowledge about its workings. The whole day was an inspiration.”

Patience Agbabi

After her talk, Murphy Shittu, Golders Green Depot Manager and James Hughes, Senior Production Manager, gave Patience and her family a tour of the depot, where they learned how Alstom cares for the Northern line fleet, which each year travels over nine million miles.

Six new poems are being displayed by Transport for London in its latest series of Poems on the Underground, one of which, Lucille Clifton’s Won’t you celebrate with me, celebrates Black History Month. In 2023, Greater Anglia adorned one of its trains in a special train livery to commemorate black history.

“Patience’s visit to Golders Green was more than just a celebration of literature; it was a moment of connection, reflection and pride. Her passion for railways and storytelling resonated deeply with our teams, reminding us of the power of representation in every corner of our industry. Black History Month is a vital time for us at Alstom to honour the contributions of Black colleagues past and present, and to reaffirm our year-round commitment to inclusion. Through events like this, we stand firm in power and pride, amplifying voices, sharing stories and building a workplace where everyone belongs.”

Simran Sandhu, Chair of Voices of Cultural Diversity and Senior Procurement Manager at Alstom