woman in orange vest in front of house with porch around it.

The colorful ‘train ladies’ of Ukraine

Meet the rail safety officers who preside over the country’s vibrant railway crossing houses and other cultural touchstones.

Railway attendant Inna Oleksandrivna Manoylenko, at work on the outskirts of Kyiv, is one of hundreds of Ukrainian railway employees who signal to passing trains and keep impatient people off the tracks.
This story appears in the March 2021 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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