How to become a train driver?

rik_t

Hello,

I am looking into changing career from IT. I am seriously considering becomming a train driver. I am based near Sheffield and do not want to relocate.
Please can anyone give me some advice on where to look to get into this career?

Thanks.

bendix

Have you also considered trying to become an astronaut or fireman, too?

SarEl

Assuming you are serious...

My friends husband is a train driver. He first had several years on buses as a driver, demonstrating an ability to maintain safe passenger transport, ability to work shifts and be reliable and on time etc. Then he had to apply to be a train conductor - low wages, horrible shifts, and the fact that your train may "start" 100 miles or so from where you live at 4 am. After some years of that he was finally accepted to train as a driver - same shifts, same locations, somewhat better pay (but still not a lot).

Perhaps you should go back to aspiring to be a postman?

Catwoman1975

My husband is a driver. He was taken on 6 years ago and trained up. You do not need to work your way up through the railways anymore and they do take on people from all walks of life. He had no previous experience and was working in IT at the time. The money is good £38k + for a 35hr 4 day week, but it is VERY competative

Find out who your local train companies are and look on their websites for trainee driver vancancies.

There is a good forum here with advice from staff
http://railchat.co.uk/phpBB2/

blued

I think this depends on where you are located. I worked for a company with a guy (albiet in a different department) who is now a train driver. He started as a conductor on around £18-20k I think and then after a couple of years (and obviously passing the required tests) he became a train driver. I live in the north of Scotland and the line he worked never had passenger trains later than about midnight or earlier than 6am so the shifts wouldnt have been that bad. Pretty sure the train drivers are on about £35k which isn't bad at all.

Owain_Moneysaver

You start as a porter / platform assistant and work your way up.

Freight companies like DB Schenker are slightly more likely to offer a more direct route into driver training than passenger tocs.

richardvc

You can start directly as a driver and don't need to work your way up through the ranks and the freight companies are actually harder to crack as they have been laying people off in recent times.

Check out your local train operators websites and see what vacancies there are - you have to pass a number of tests/assessments to even be considered and these tests are not things that you can really train for ie reaction tests, memory tests, etc

Training is tough but the money is good and if you can handle shift work it is a great job.

If you would like more information, please feel free to PM me. Oh, btw I am a train driver in case you are wondering how I know !!

DVardysShadow

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

You start as a porter / platform assistant and work your way up.

Freight companies like DB Schenker are slightly more likely to offer a more direct route into driver training than passenger tocs.

Shows the danger of forums. As I have had it explained to me, if you start on one of the lowlier jobs, it can be harder to get your TOC to accept you for training as a driver than if you came off the street - because they have to train someone to fill the vacancy you leave.

richardvc

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Shows the danger of forums. As I have had it explained to me, if you start on one of the lowlier jobs, it can be harder to get your TOC to accept you for training as a driver than if you came off the street - because they have to train someone to fill the vacancy you leave.

I was a guard before I became a driver and yes there is an element of truth in what you say.

It is possible to come off the street and into the driving grade but more beneficial to work your way up !!

Quite a lot of what was written before me on this thread is utter bunkum to be frank !!

TwistedPsycho

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

You start as a porter / platform assistant and work your way up.

Freight companies like DB Schenker are slightly more likely to offer a more direct route into driver training than passenger tocs.

ABSOLUTE RUBBISH!

The majority of freight operators (FOCs) will only take experienced passenger drivers unless you are talking about a minority of fly-by-night operators.
FOCs usually only employ off the street for depot/yard/assistant shunter positions.

Although some passenger operators (TOCs) will accept off the street applications some will only accept experienced drivers or internal applications - dependent on operator. It is purely down to the area that you are in. In the TOC I worked for, a lot of guards who applied for drivers positions eventually got there, although it might take a few years or a depot relocation.

London Underground are the most common to employ Train Operators off the street.




[my experience: 8 years on the Railway; 5 as a Guard, 3 as a Signaller]

dobs

My husband wanted to be a train driver, he worked on platform for yrs and has been a train manager (guard) for about 8 now. He has taken the driver test three times and failed so cannot take it again with his company, i saw the practice tests and they are v hard, though it was the reactions test he really found hard (which is obviously important if your'e driving trains!). Wages for driver are around £38,000 i think, he earns £29,000 basic as a guard. The thing you have to think about as well is could you cope with suicides etc, he has had a herd of cows run through when they got on the track, had a colleague killed in train crash, had a lady lying under the train the other day (luckily the wrong way so she was ok!) but it shook the driver up. Then again as a train guard he's been punched a couple of times and on the platforms had a suicide to deal with so it's not surprising it's good money!