Swedish male train drivers wear skirts as protest

STOCKHOLM – Commuters on a train line in northern Stockholm were met with an unusual sight this week: male train drivers and conductors wearing skirts to work.

Train driver Martin Akersten says he and more than a dozen others at the Roslagsbanan line have started wearing skirts in the summer as a protest against the train company's uniform policy, which doesn't allow shorts.

The 30-year-old Akersten said Sunday the response from customers has been only positive.

Arriva, the company that runs the train line, hasn't stopped the drivers.  Arriva spokesman Tomas Hedenius says the company wants its staff to look "nice and proper," but can't stop men from wearing "women's clothes" if that's what they want because it would be discrimination.

He didn't rule out a change of the company's uniform policy.