Anyone a train driver...need a career change!

[careercat]

Need a complete change of career. I'm done with teaching - it has destroyed my soul. The only thing that I'm really interested in is becoming a train driver. I know - bit random! I know it's super competitive though.

Is anyone a train driver who could walk me through the process? - How long did it take to get trained up? Anything that helped with your application? Any advice would be much appreciated.

www.traindriver.org/women-train-drivers.html

@LifeIsGreatForUnicorns
Also, I believe in the depot, 70% have had at least one person “under” - unfortunately the train normally wins 😢
I know their friends and one had 4 within 5 years ☹️ Depends on how you deal with this

Do the drivers get training in advance and support when it happens?

Look at www.railforums.co.uk/forums/railway-jobs-careers.122/

huge amount of information on there.

Not uncommon to spend several years trying to pass assessments and I think I’m right in saying that if you fail the competency tests twice then that’s it, no future chances to apply.

There are differences between passenger and freight, worth bearing in mind. Whilst both are actively recruiting women, the culture in freight remains very masculine.

Knowing a little about shift patterns in this line of work I can’t imagine for a moment how I would do it with children unless I had another parent with traditional working hours or a great deal of availability.

Take your time to find out plenty before embarking on the process, it could be a long journey with lots of ups and downs to endure before you even get offered a position to train.

There are a number of railway industrial training videos on YouTube - no idea if they are up to date but they are interesting to watch - the perils of a signal passed at danger (SPAD) and a very sad one where a new starter on the maintenance side is ostracised by his team and packs the job in on the first day - the acting is remarkably good by the standards of work training videos.

How did I know you were a teacher just from the title? 😂 me too! Are you on the Facebook group?

Not sure you can ever have “training” to deal with this as I believe each incident can be very different unfortunately- it also depends how long it’s taken them to stop (think it takes about 1/2 mile to stop a 200tonne train - maybe more depending on how fast their going- if they do hit someone, they obv stop, have to (generally) walk back to check if that person requires any medical treatment, etc and block the tracks whilst calling for support.
they then generally have a chain of care with a manager going out to meet them and depending on the person they may have paid for counselling - some go onto have PTSD so can make home life difficult- it really depends on how it happens(& their own resilience)

One of the issues currently is that some train companies are looking to remove train managers/guards so if this was to happen drivers are worried about how they’re supposed to handle this - do they leave the train full of passengers to go check the condition of the person they’ve hit (sometimes these people survive) or stay with the train and just call the urgent helpline they have (which sounds in theory but on a night like tonight where it’s dark, raining and windy) will they really know exactly where it happened? If they get it wrong that person may not survive

some people do not cope and become train managers/guards where they are less likely to actually ‘see’ it happen

i do think it really depends on the incident that you’ve had

family member had a bad accident when they hit a car parked on a level crossing - that caused severe PTSD and had lots of CBT, not helped as the. Had to attend court and they showed the video of it happening (most trains have forward facing cameras) which put them back a bit 😞

2nd incident didn’t effect as much as it was just person vs train situation

These are things the OP does need to consider when choosing this type of career as it’s not like you can swerve to avoid as the train is on tracks!

but family member has been a TD for 30 years and loves their job 😊

Not sure you can ever have “training” to deal with this as I believe each incident can be very different unfortunately- it also depends how long it’s taken them to stop (think it takes about 1/2 mile to stop a 200tonne train - maybe more depending on how fast their going- if they do hit someone, they obv stop, have to (generally) walk back to check if that person requires any medical treatment, etc and block the tracks whilst calling for support.
they then generally have a chain of care with a manager going out to meet them and depending on the person they may have paid for counselling - some go onto have PTSD so can make home life difficult- it really depends on how it happens(& their own resilience)

One of the issues currently is that some train companies are looking to remove train managers/guards so if this was to happen drivers are worried about how they’re supposed to handle this - do they leave the train full of passengers to go check the condition of the person they’ve hit (sometimes these people survive) or stay with the train and just call the urgent helpline they have (which sounds in theory but on a night like tonight where it’s dark, raining and windy) will they really know exactly where it happened? If they get it wrong that person may not survive

some people do not cope and become train managers/guards where they are less likely to actually ‘see’ it happen

i do think it really depends on the incident that you’ve had

family member had a bad accident when they hit a car parked on a level crossing - that caused severe PTSD and had lots of CBT, not helped as the. Had to attend court and they showed the video of it happening (most trains have forward facing cameras) which put them back a bit 😞

2nd incident didn’t effect as much as it was just person vs train situation

These are things the OP does need to consider when choosing this type of career as it’s not like you can swerve to avoid as the train is on tracks!

but family member has been a TD for 30 years and loves their job 😊

Hi Op,

My dad was a train driver for 20 odd years he has recently retired and I'll be honest the stress in his life has just melted away he is a different person. Even back then the interview process was so competitive - I remember he told me he turned up to his group interview stage in a jumper and jeans (he's not a suit man) as he didn't realise he would need to be smart. Well he ended up being the only one put through that group, as he has mechanical experience no qualifications other than that but he could demonstrate fault finding as that's a major requirement of the job when a train breaks down, the first person looking at fixing it is the driver. He applied for the job as he said it was the only thing he could think about doing that paid reasonably well that he thought he could actually be able to do. (I think his final salary as a senior driver was around 50k) so I work with men who earn 4 times that with a fraction of the stress my dad experienced- not putting the money down but over the years whenever my brother showed interest in it my dad would often say maybe try something else first as he could earn just as well doing something less stressful. I think you get 2 tries to get through after that no more (I mean a lot may have changed but this is as of what he told me this year).

Over the years I watched him study routinely every 6 months as there are regular exams to check your routes, you need to know your routes off by heart and be able to draw them. The shifts can be brutal and the pressure is immense there is really 0% room for error in the job. 9 hours continously driving one day throughout the day and the next day the night. One night I remember him sitting with his head in his hands so stressed as he had passed a signal incorrectly complete human moment of error - he told me if he ever did it again he would be sacked.

Not knocking it of course! but just being realistic- there are perks 2 weeks off every couple of months, and er on the spot counselling and time off if you have a suicide (which happens an awful lot, and if you don't experience it first hand you're often called if nearby to help look for...well the aftermath evidence if that makes sense) it's not for the week hearted. Also the abuse drivers experience is quite shocking my dad had a spit kit to take dna samples - that's how often he would be spat at. If not abuse dealing with drunk and disorderly the list goes on.

Put it this way, whenever I was having a wobble at work (office) growing up my dad would say "if you make a mistake you can normally amend it or correct it...in train driving that's just not possible" he feared losing his job everyday, just in case he hadn't had quite enough sleep or was momentarily distracted you just can't do it.

I would do some thorough research I think it's the sort of job that does require a particular mindset- oh and absolutely no panickers - you need to be a cool cucumber kinda person!

Hope this helps x

It's a very complex job, and your posts also put the industrial issues into context. Thanks for your posts as they are very informative :)

Hi OP - I work in the industry and in your area too.
living in leeds, your best option for trainee driver roles is Northern, subscribe for job alerts with them.
TPE tend to take qualified drivers from
other TOCs, however they have advertised for trainees lately, again subscribe for alerts. TPE had trainee positions in York a while ago.
LNER also has a depot in Leeds, so again i would subscribe to all 3 for job alerts.
My best advice would be go to railforum, they have a careers section, literally everything you need to know is on there. The recruitment process is tough, but there are trainee drivers from all walks of life - as an industry they want more female drivers as we are massively underrepresented.
ignore the fatality stuff. The odds are actually very low. There’s around 350 rail fatalities every year across the whole UK, so it can happen but very often drivers don’t even know they’ve done it! I know drivers of 40 years who haven’t had them and drivers of 3 years that have had 2.

There is good employee assistant programs to help if it does happen. I know 2 people that quit the grade after it (that’s out of about 300 plus drivers)

The shift work can be very challenging, and it can be hard to get time off with how daily leave requests work, but has loads of benefits too.

Happy to answer any specific questions - feel free to pm me

Depends on the train company as some will only employ people who have been platform staff and/or conductors. It's very competitive to get into but they are looking to employ more female drivers. Yes it's a high salary but there's a lot of training to be done, constant reappraisal and training. Also the risk of jumpers which doesn't bear thinking about. Be prepared to go on strike - if you don't you will be completely ostracised.

It is my understanding that the train drivers unions require a mandate for strike action.
The strikes so far have had that mandate, and there is a new ballot which closes on 15 November 2022 - as part of an ongoing dispute over pay, job security and working conditions due.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63284534

Re career change - train driver
traindriver.org seems a good source of information
informative posts from @@LifeIsGreatForUnicorns too

Good luck @careercat :)

Honestly, do not ignore the fatality stuff. Consider if you could handle it. It might never happen and there are definitely some “spots” than mean some lines are worse than others but it is not that uncommon. My husband works on the railway and it’s fairly regular on the lines round here. Some of his friends are drivers and completely traumatised. I don’t want to be too graphic but huge huge very fast train v biological material is not a good competition and if you’re really unlucky, you’ll see their face.

it may never happen and probably for a majority it won’t but it does happen regularly and some poor souls more than once when driving. So it’s worth thinking through if you are likely to be able to cope if you are one of them. You do get sent home on paid leave if it happens.

id say anything to do with the railway is no longer the job people think it is, and also don’t forget driverless trains are on their way so depending on your age you might need another career afterwards (Glasgow subway already planning to introduce them).

There’s a massive level of abuse to staff too, probsbly less so to drivers locked in their cabs - but there’s another consideration too, it’s long very solitary shifts.