Brussels Transit Pioneer: First Female Electromechanical Engineer Maintains Metro Trains at STIB

The electromechanical engineer installs and adjusts autonomous automated equipment or automated industrial systems and performs their maintenance. Touria, for her part, is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the metro trains. She discovered a passion for electromechanics after serving for 20 years in the health sector.

It was at her workplace, in the middle of metro door maintenance, that the bX1 reporting team went to meet her. She confides that her mission of the day was to "check the parallelism of the metro doors, see if the seals are not crushed, if the mechanism is working properly". But that’s not all. Touria will also have to check if the electrical circuit of the metro train is working properly. Her daily life is made up of these tasks that seem like nothing at all but on which the safety of metro users depends.

If after 20 years of a career in the medical field, Touria has traded her white coat for the tool belt of the electromechanical engineer, it is to bring to life a childhood dream. "I dreamed of this job since I was 8 or 9 years old. We had an automatic door that opened and I found that magical. I always wondered how that was possible. I was very intrigued".

After 3 years of training, the young woman has been the first female electromechanical engineer for three years. "It was a challenge for me and for my classmates too. They had to adapt to me and I to them". Despite the complexity of the job, she claims to have found the job that really suits her "It’s a rather fascinating job and I feel at ease, ready to take on other challenges".