Rail ballet metronome June 9, 2026

Behind Pauline’s illuminated eyes, the numbers scroll by. 21 trains in service, 80 maintenance modules to be set up, five teams running around. A single oversight and the safety of thousands of travelers falters. A heavy load carried by a young binocular in the prime of her life. An immense task matched only by his emotional intelligence, his rigor and his humility. “I’m not here to be the boss,” she said. I’m here to keep the train moving.” Its contribution to the country’s economy is measurable, because without it, from Dakar to Diamniadio, no train leaves the platform.

She is the planning and information system manager for the SETER Rolling Stock Maintenance Department. In easy French: every Monday morning, Pauline Thérèse Mylène Dasylva orchestrates the train ballet for the weeks and month to come.

Rio is the thinking head who provides the stimuli and the driving force that moves the TER forward on a daily basis. A very complex task, but above all transversal. “It’s engineering, production, logistics, a little bit of everything,” she sums up with a smile.

But despite her young age, Pauline understands all the responsibility that weighs on her shoulders. At his post, no errors are allowed. “A train can easily transport 500 people. If you miss maintenance, you risk lives,” she notes.

It only took Pauline three years to go from trainee to seasoned professional, even though nothing predestined her to the world of rail. But his rigor, his ability to adapt, his desire to learn but above all his humility facilitated a transformation that changed everything in his life.

After a Bachelor in business administration, training in transport management and logistics, Pauline imagined herself in commerce or the classic supply chain. “The railway? Never in life! » she says.

Indeed, in February 2023, she arrived on an internship to help set up the Department’s department store. A few months later, she fell in love with metal, with incomprehensible acronyms, with abbreviations that frighten newbies, with the sound of tools, with the smell of grease… She fell into the magnetic field.

In December 2023, she officially takes up her position. Today we are in March 2026: in just over two years, she has gone from intern to essential pillar.

THE DRIVING POWER OF THE TER

To do this, we had to learn the vocabulary of an ultra-technical world, understand each module, know which team does what, which installation is free. “At the beginning, what now takes me two or three hours took me a whole day,” she remembers.

But Pauline never backed down. She knew how to count on a work environment that encouraged progress. “I was lucky to have great management and a young, caring team. We support each other, we talk to each other, we laugh,” she confides.

This favorable environment allowed him to have impressive mastery and good progress in a very masculine environment.

Because she is a woman in a historically masculine environment, Pauline also wears another hat, that of an example. “Today, we see more and more women, and that’s nice. It shows that we are capable of having positions of responsibility, of integrating industrial professions, of doing like men… without being at war with them. We just take our place, naturally,” she explains.

Pauline does not believe in predefined limits. It goes beyond the famous glass ceiling. “There is no limit. You just have to want it, believe in it, build a good foundation and above all, never back down,” she says.

Pauline Thérèse Mylène Dasylva does not pilot the trains. She controls their hearts. She is the architect of trust between TERs and users. Each time a train arrives on time and at the right destination, it is thanks to a shadowy lady with the qualities of a goldsmith.
By Assane FALL