becoming_a_train

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So, you're thinking about trying to become a train driver, wondering what it involves and how to go about getting started in the profession? If you got here by typing a query into a search engine then I can tell you that you have arrived at the only significant resource on the internet concerning how to go about becoming a train driver in Britain - so search no further!

What do I know about it? Well I've been on the footplate for over thirty years now, driving for over a quarter of a century and occasionally instructing new drivers from their very first time 'in the chair', as well as training and assessing experienced ones. All the following is written from that perspective of that experience.

Train driving does not require any high academic achievement, but you do need to be self-disciplined, comfortable working alone for long periods, able to handle responsibility and be able to be trusted to apply safety-critical procedures without being constantly supervised. If you're one of life's worriers the job will kill you, so forget it! Beyond that any sensible and reliable person should be able to become a Train Driver. As with any job, what you get out of train driving depends very much on how you approach it and what you want to make of it. It can be very rewarding and is far better than most occupations; however, if you want to be bored and disaffected you'll find plenty of opportunity for that too! One thing you shouldn't do is go for the job for the money. I've seen people do that with the result that they are trapped in a job they dislike but which is so well paid that they can't afford to move on.

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Traditionally, boys were recruited onto the steam railway at the age of fourteen as engine cleaners with only a basic education. After a year or so of laborious engine cleaning combined with general shed duties, such as assisting the boiler-smiths and fitters, they would be examined and passed out by a locomotive inspector as being fit for firing duties. Now re-classified as Passed Cleaners, from this point on they could be used by the shed foremen as firemen on such workings as local goods trips or yard shunting. Incredible as it now seems, there was no paid, formal training at all. Cleaners taught themselves and attended unpaid Mutual Improvement Classes (MICs) run by experienced drivers and firemen in their own time, often between church and brass band practice on Sunday morning in a driver's front parlour! Eventually a cleaner would obtain a full time fireman's appointment, often posted to a depot far from home, beginning the slow progression through the rosters, called links. This would see them starting on shed, local and shunting work, gradually venturing further afield, then onto semi-fast passenger work and long-haul freights before finally getting onto express passenger trains. Promotion through the links and grades was on a rigid system based on length of service or seniority, what is commonly known as 'Buggins' Turn'! After ten years or so, and still studying in his own time, a fireman would be examined and passed for driving, becoming a Passed Fireman, thereafter being available for the most lowly driving duties, usually shunting or preparation & disposal of locomotives. Finally, perhaps in his late thirties or early forties he would obtain promotion to Driver and begin the long haul through the links all over again, perhaps not becoming a 'top link' express driver until just a few years before retirement.

Around the late '60s - early '70s, with the advent of diesel and electric traction, firemen became Secondmen, or Drivers Assistants as they were re-named once women began to be recruited into the footplate grades. The early '70s also saw BR introduce a formal training course called the MP12, which eventually led to the disappearance of the semi-official and unpaid MICs. Typically, one would join BR straight from school at sixteen and might be a DA for around five years before being sent on the six month long MP12 and being passed out as a Relief Driver. Shortly after, at the age of 21 or 22, promotion would be gained to Train Driver, usually at one of the lowly and unpopular suburban commuter train depots around the big cities with their rather boring and repetitive work. Most would simultaneously register a preference to transfer back to their home depot or to somewhere with a more interesting and varied workload once they had enough seniority behind them to get in.

With the phasing out of double-manning in the nineteen-eighties the Traincrew Concept was introduced. This saw conductors (and occasionally signallers or station staff) being selected for driver training with little or no 'front-end' experience. This was followed by the Sectorisation of BR into InterCity, Network SouthEast, Regional Railways and Railfreight sectors. This led to train drivers specialising in driving only certain types of train in more geographically limited areas. For many of the older and experienced drivers the reduction of route coverage and train types they handled damaged the perceived quality and interest of the job. The Traincrew Concept also resulted in a sharp rise in the age at which people became drivers, from their early twenties to more like their thirties and forties due to the sudden eligibility of large numbers of older conductors.

The further division of BR into some thirty Train Operating Companies (TOCs), which were subsequently franchised or sold to private firms, has further reduced the scope of train driving. The advent of privatisation saw the route of promotion to driver initially concentrated on conductors and there became little chance of other grades obtaining driving positions. A few companies, notably Virgin, experimented with recruiting trainee train drivers from outside the industry (off the street and boil-in-the-bag drivers are the contemptuous terms used by existing train crew) in the hope that such people would not be encumbered by the perceived baggage of old railway attitudes as certain managers chose to see it. On the one hand such candidates lack a feel for the industry, its peculiar ways of working and are completely inexperienced; on the other I can testify that they have a better attitude, are eager to learn and seem to be easier to train. Another big difference is that they value their job more as they are not approaching it with the sense of entitlement that went with the old promotional systems. Despite mixed results it seems that this will become an increasingly common route for selecting new train drivers. It's strange that in the space of thirty years we went from a situation where new train drivers were highly experienced but had no formal training to one where we have formal training but the newbie can have almost no experience; the first time they have to deal with an out-of-course situation is as the driver in charge!

So, you have two main alternative routes to becoming a train driver today. Either do a few years as a conductor (Train Person with the freight companies - a sort of shunter-come-DA) or come to it in later life as a second career. We now have quite a number of drivers who have joined after careers as bankers, journalists, solicitors, teachers or from the military or medical professions. The military, especially ex-NCOs seem to be especially favoured. My opinion is that this latter arrangement will become the norm and that train driving will be a job people come to more in maturity than youth. This is slowly changing the social make-up of the profession as it becomes better educated, more widely experienced and more middle-class. If you are thinking of becoming a Conductor, whether as a long term career as a staging post to becoming a Driver, there is a website offering advice at Becoming a Conductor.

Much of the training infrastructure that existed under BR was wrecked in the hiatus of privatisation. This, combined with new managers' (often from the bus industry) under-estimation of what is involved in the job, led to a national shortage of train drivers in the late 'nineties. This shortage, combined with the multiplicity of companies, introduced market forces into the job for the first time and saw pay rates rocket from a basic of £11,500 at the end of BR to anywhere between £32,000 and £40,000 today, depending on the company. That rise isn't really as large as it looks, partly because BR is now a long time ago, partly because today's basic pay rates include many payments which were bonuses and enhancements under BR. Even so, if taming the unions was a principal objective it has to count as a spectacular political own-goal for the Conservative Party. Market forces in the new structure are far more effective at raising pay than going on strike when you work for a national monopoly! It has also introduced the phenomenon of drivers switching employers to gain better rates and conditions or to move to a location which suits them. This puts further pressure on the employers as they struggle to retain their expensively trained drivers.

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The Working Day: Being a train driver involves erratic working patterns and Conditions of Service which vary from one TOC to another. In theory, turn lengths can vary between about five and eleven hours but in practice most come in at around seven to ten hours. Woking hours are subject to what are know as the Hidden Regulations* which specify that you cannot work a shift longer than twelve hours and then only if there is no driving involved after the eleventh hour. You must also have a minimum of twelve hours off between shifts. (* Named after Anthony Hidden, the consultant who compiled the report on drivers hours for BR - nothing to do with the regulations being secret!)

At a typical passenger company you might do a week of early turns booking on between about 0430 and 0730, a week of so-called 'middle' turns booking on between about 0930 and 1300, then a week of late turns booking on between 1300 and 1700 and finishing after midnight. More commonly these shifts may simply be arranged as alternate weeks of lates & earlies. There may be the occasional week of nights during which you will carry out preparation and positioning of trains ready for the next morning's service. At freight TOCs there is a greater preponderance of night work. Those freight depots which carry out engineering work also have a high incidence of weekend working, a lot of which is at night. Some InterCity and most freight firms require a limited degree of lodge or double-home working which will see you staying in an hotel away from home between shifts. Fortunately they like to keep this to a minimum because of the cost. Shown below are a couple of representative diagrams from the London Midland depot at Birmingham New Street and the Cross-Country depot at Cambridge to give you an idea of the sort of work a regional operator does.

Book on 0626, book off 1457, on duty 8h31

Traction	Station	Arrival	Departure	WTT No	Comment
Class 170	Cambridge		0646	1N34	Unit prepared by ferry driver
	Leicester	0846	0848	1N34
	Birmingham N S	0942			Leave unit for Leicester driver
Break 0947 to 1012
Class 170	Birmingham NS		1024	1L12	Join unit left by Leicester driver
	Leicester	1114	1115	1L12
	Cambridge	1310	1311	1L12
	Stansted Airport	1344	1425	1M92
	Cambridge	1457			Relieved. To Birmingham NS

Book on 0544, book off 1456, on duty 9h12

Traction	Station	Arrival	Departure	WTT No	Comment
Class 323x2	Birmingham N S		0604	2N03	Join unit left by BNS driver
	Longbridge	0623	0624	5N08
	Siding	0625	0631	5N08
	Longbridge	0632	0633	2N08
	Birmingham NS	0652	0655	2N08
	Lichfield TV	0734	0740	2N21
	Birmingham NS	0821	0824	2N21
	Longbridge	0844	0845	5U28
	Siding	0846	0851	5U28
	Longbridge	0852	0853	2U28
	Birmingham NS	0912	0916	2U28
	Four Oaks	0941	0948	2R23
	Birmingham NS	1012			Relieved by BNS driver
Break 1017 to 1042
Class 350	Birmingham NS		1123	1F40	Join unit left by Crewe driver
	Crewe	1222	1224	1F40
	Liverpool LS	1309	1319	1G31
	Crewe	1358	1400	1G31
	Birmingham NS	1455			Leave for Wolverhampton driver

(A few sample diagrams from other TOCs - especially freight companies - would be welcome here if you are a driver and would care to drop me a line!)

The working week is normally 35 hours, though there are still a few companies working 37 hours or even longer. Bear in mind that this is an average over the link and that individual hours-per-week could vary between roughly 30 and 42. Depending on which firm you work for your week might be spread over four or five shifts, with either one or two No-duty or Rest Days days per week. Companies with two ND days in the week usually arrange them so that you are Friday & Saturday off one week, then Sunday, Monday & Tuesday the second week, followed by Wednesday & Thursday off the third week. This arrangement yields a five-day long weekend every three weeks. As far as possible the roster would be made up of three week segments similar to this:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
OFF	1300-2215, 9h15	1107-1922, 8h15	1107-1922, 8h15	0827-1803, 9h36	ND	ND
OFF	ND	ND	0425-1309, 8h44	0425-1245, 8h20	0510-1404, 8h54	0615-1500, 8h45
0828-1701, 8h33	1245-2200, 9h15	1215-2207, 9h52	ND	ND	1415-2309, 8h54	1315-2230, 9h15

Notice how the railway week begins on Sunday, not Monday. Notice also how weeks of earlies and lates alternate. It is desirable to do this so that pairs of drivers who arrange a regular swap between themselves to work permanent earlies or lates remain paired as one of them goes off the bottom of the roster and back to the top. To do this the roster ideally has to be divisible by two. If it is also divisible by three (i.e. 12, 18, 24, 30 weeks) it ensures that a long weekend falls neatly every third week. However, overarching constraints mean these ideals are not always possible. Larger depots may have several of these rosters, called links. As mentioned before, these links were traditionally promotional with the higher links attracting the more agreeable and better paid work and being staffed by the more senior drivers. Although this still often happens the more even characteristics of a depot's work these days means there isn't much difference in the work content of the links. At some depots the links have even become non-promotional and you stay where you're put, although there may be an element of choice as to which one you end up in. Companies with one no-duty day per week, such as Virgin, bank the notional second no-duty day from each week to give a clear week off every fifth week.

Sunday Working: The guaranteed working week on the railway has always run from Monday to Saturday with Sundays counted as voluntary overtime. This means you can opt not to work a Sunday or even opt not to work Sundays at all. However, you are required to indicate that you do not wish to work a Sunday by early the preceding week in order that your turn can be covered by a spare or volunteer driver.

This applies to most railway grades and it comes as a big surprise to outsiders to learn that the Sunday train service is run almost entirely on a voluntary basis. The low rates of pay in the past meant that most drivers worked all the Sundays (and often Rest Days) they could in order to earn a living wage, with the result that the Sunday service was reliably covered. The fact that train driving is very much better paid today means that many drivers have made the lifestyle choice to forgo the extra money and have every Sunday off. This has meant that at some depots the management are having a real struggle to cover the Sunday service and are sometimes cancelling trains because no staff are available.

Because of this some companies are moving to including Sundays in the four (or five) day working week so that it is rostered as a normal day. This isn't as easy as it sounds though because doing this effectively involves taking driver hours out of the Monday to Saturday roster in order to transfer them to the Sunday. This either requires a reduction in weekday train services or requires more drivers to be employed. Because of these difficulties some companies are trying to change the Conditions of Service so that drivers work an agreed maximum number of committed Sundays each year on a compulsory overtime basis. This is deeply unpopular and has only been introduced at a few firms (such as Virgin) at the price of very much higher salaries. More of these changes can be expected though.

Rest Day Working is allowed at most companies and is voluntary. If you work a rest day you must still ensure that you adhere to the Hidden Regulations which require you to have twelve hours between shifts and do not allow you to work more than thirteen days consecutively without a day off. This also applies to working extra Sundays.

Leave is normally rostered as a week's Early Leave in the Spring, two weeks off in the Summer and a week's Late Leave towards the end of the year. This is supplemented by a variable number (typically eight to ten) of odd days - floaters - to be taken off, by application, when you want. Bank Holidays are nowadays treated as ordinary working days, apart from Christmas Day & Boxing Day when the railway virtually shuts down and almost everyone is booked off anyway.

Pay varies widely but you can expect it to be much lower (about £12-16,000 lower) during training and in your first probationary year as a Post-Qualified Driver - PQD. See below for pay rates.

Seniority still determines link progression once you become a train driver or the arrangements if you are made redundant, but it is no longer critical in determining whether you get the job in the first place: suitability now comes into it. This has been decried by some as meaning that you only get the job if your face fits. However, as those whose faces don't fit usually turn out to have a poor attitude, have caused operational incidents, are constantly being late, persistently taking short-term sick leave or creating other problems this is probably just as well! Once you've been a conductor for a few years your managers' know what you're like and they will not appoint people with poor records or who are temperamentally unsuitable.

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The first women were appointed as Drivers Assistants around 1977, shortly after the Equal Opportunities Act came into force. Many of the older drivers at that time had been footplatemen since before the war and some had very old fashioned working class attitudes. They viewed the modern generation of male DAs, like myself, who hadn't spent years cleaning and firing, with deep suspicion and it is hardly surprising that many of them were wary of the prospect of women entering the footplate grades. Frankly, they weren't used to working with women and some were simply frightened of them! Things weren't helped by the fact that these were the industrially troubled 'seventies and that a few of the women who joined then were politically motivated and looking to cause trouble. Given the often poor reception they got, it was a brave woman who would be among the first in the business.

Eventually things settled down and the first female drivers appeared in the early 'eighties. Attitudes, and the atmosphere of the job, have mellowed greatly since then and women driving trains are no longer a cause for comment. Even so, there are no more than a few of hundred women driving trains nationally, though London Underground has been especially keen to recruit them. Although the profession is and probably always will be numerically male-dominated, the macho and sometimes misogynistic attitudes of the past are long gone and women today need not feel intimidated about going for the job on those grounds. Indeed, being a woman is probably now an unfair advantage in the intense competition for Trainee Drivers' posts.

There is nothing in train driving that women are no perfectly capable of doing; the hardest physical task is coupling and uncoupling locos with the freight TOCs - and even this is more a matter of knack than brute strength. Another problem with the freight companies is that you can sometimes be on the loco for several hours and the alfresco toilet arrangements might not appeal! The only real reservation is as to whether the working patterns of the job are compatible with bringing up school age children without a suitably placed partner at home to help. Legislation which came into force in 2003 requires employers to give serious consideration to accommodating parents of young children on suitable turns where feasible and it will be interesting to see how this works out. It's still early days yet but it is only fair to warn that the limited experience so far has not been very encouraging. I suppose it is foolish to imagine that such accommodation doesn't give rise to a degree of resentment among colleagues which, although it may be suppressed by anti-harassment policies, is undoubtedly there and has ways of making itself felt.

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ASLEF have produced a number of inspiring articles in their Locomotive Journal under the title 'Key Workers'. They include interviews with people who have come to train driving after careers as reporters, footballers, bankers, sales reps, sales managers and the like. Read their own stories... You can find back issues of Locomotive Journal here. Have a look at Jan 2006 p17; Feb 2006 p17; Mar 2006 p17; Apl 2006 p16-17; Jun 2006 p17; Aug 2006 p19; Sep 2006 p19; Oct 2006 p19; Nov 2006 p19;Jan 2007 p19; Feb 2007 p19; Mar 2007 p10; Jun 2007 p19; Aug 2007 p18; Oct 2007 p18; Nov 2007 p19.

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The first thing to understand is that there are an average of 317 applications for every train driving job that comes up. They aren't betting odds, and the odds are getting longer as the attractions of the job become apparent to a wider, better educated and more experienced pool of potential applicants. It also means that you will have to work hard to get to first base. Still, it isn't quite as bad as it sounds as many of those applications are of very poor quality and I expect they hit the bin faster than an 'exclusive' invitation to a Reader's Digest prize draw! If you could see some of the sloppy, illiterate and stupid* e-mails I sometimes receive in response to this website you might not worry quite so much about the competition....! ( * Well... I mean, people regularly write to ask me if there is any general advice I can give them as to how to go about becoming a train driver. I don't know what they must think this webpage is for?!).

Anyway, no specific educational requirements are laid down but you should nevertheless be fully literate, numerate and have a good general education. You should also be the sort of person who is able to maintain concentration while working alone, be calm in difficult situations, be able to make decisions, have a high degree of safety awareness and be well organised and reliable. You must also have the right to reside and work in the UK. Although I say that formal educational requirements are not laid down the sheer weight of competition for places means that a good higher education will help you to stand out from the crowd. My feeling is that as more and more people come to train driving in later life we will see many future drivers bringing degrees and other qualifications from their earlier careers. Besides, many Personnel Managers are degree holders themselves and people do so love to build the world in their own image!

Some TOCs allow you to make an initial CV application by e-mail, others want you to send a covering letter with a filled-in application form, so you have to ask them for that first: go by the job advert. Keep a copy of any forms or letters you send in a folder and take them along to any subsequent interview. If you speak by phone to anyone at the firm you are applying to, make sure you make a note of their name, position, phone number and phone extension. Ask for an e-mail address if it seems appropriate.

Covering Letter: Whether you are applying by CV or application form you should also enclose a covering letter. Your letter should be in the style of a business letter, it can be hand written and should contain your contact details, even though they're also on the CV or application form. State clearly what job it is that you're applying for (and at what location) and where you saw it advertised. If you are making a speculative application you should say specifically what type of work you are applying for; just asking 'have you got any openings' looks too vague and half-hearted. Explain in a few sentences why you particularly want that job and try to give an impression that you know something about the company you are applying to; nothing is worse than an application which looks as if the same thing has been sprayed around several different firms with only the address changed. Draw attention to one or two points expanded on in your CV or application form to explain why you think you are well suited to the job with that company. Try to find out the name of the person you are writing to. This not only ensures that your application goes to the right desk but makes it look as if you've bothered to find out who they are. Take your time and think carefully about your covering letter; it's the first thing they read... and it may be the last!

Application Forms: If you are sending one of these a full CV will not be needed. Read the whole of the form through first before you begin to fill anything in. If it asks for black ink and capital letters use black ink and capital letters; this isn't the time to express your individualism. Sketch out your answers on a separate piece of paper first, especially the bits where you have to compose a paragraph or two. Check your spelling before you write anything down.

Your C.V. : (curriculum vitae = life story) This should be aimed at making you look attractive to your prospective employer. Given that your application may one among thousands you will want it to stand out. These days CVs are normally composed on a word-processor; gone are the days when they had to be done in your best copperplate! Use a good wide border, leave white space between sections, use bold type to begin sub-sections and bullet points to set out lists of qualifications and the like. Try to keep the whole thing within two sheets of A4, print it single-sided in at least 12 point Times or Ariel type to make it easy to read, use a decent quality paper (not ink-jet or coloured stuff) and again - spell-check it !! You need to set out the following:

* Personal details: Give your name and address followed by your home phone number, mobile number and e-mail address. If you don't have an Anglo-Saxon name it is a good idea to make it clear whether you are a man or a woman by putting Mr/Ms/Mrs in front of your name; it saves any embarrassment later!

* Education: You can probably skimp on listing your GCSE passes (unless they're all you've got or you are a school leaver) as they can look a bit silly coming from a grown adult - a bit like listing your Cycling Proficiency Test and swimming certificates! Give more prominence to your A-level results, emphasising things that might be of interest to a TOC, such as any business, engineering or transport related courses you have taken. Then move on to any Degrees, again giving prominence to anything especially relevant. Finally, mention industrial training courses taken, commercial qualifications and training qualifications such as D32, C25, NEBOSH, H&S and the like; companies are very interested in these.

* Previous Employment: Start with your current job and work backwards, including part-time work. List employers, addresses, dates employed, locations and positions held. Again mention anything a TOC might find interesting, such as whether you worked in a public-facing role, retail, food service, or did safety-critical work. If you are used to irregular shifts, night work or to working weekends, say so.

* Interests: You want to look like a well-rounded personality here, easy to get on with but not too bumptious and outgoing - that has recognised safety implications for train driving. Contrary to the received wisdom, being a railway enthusiast is fine as long as you don't come across as a total anorak. For Train Drivers' positions TOCs need calm, steady and responsible individuals who don't take risks: listing you hobbies as 'scuba-diving, mountaineering, parachuting and touring beer festivals might not be a good idea! Try something like 'gardening, walking, theatre and computers' instead.

* Other Skills: A TOC would probably like you to be computer-literate, able to use word-processors etc. Also, if you have first-aid skills or fire training it would be worth mentioning them. Likewise foreign languages and whether you have a car, bus or HGV driving licence.

* Getting to Work: Ironically, people who are reliant on public transport aren't much good to public transport operators because of the need to get to and from work in the small hours when public transport isn't running. If you have a car and can get in at any hour you should mention this. Likewise if you live near the depot at which you are hoping to be based or are prepared to move house you should make this clear. It's also a good idea to mention that you are willing to move around to pursue promotional opportunities if this is relevant. Some TOCs specify a maximum distance or travelling time (commonly 30 minutes) that you can live from your depot, so be ready to field this question at your company interview. Some TOCs won't even give you an interview unless you already live close to one of their depots.

* If You Are Already a Train Driver: You will have to fill out a Transfer of Safety-Critical Information form as illustrated in Appendix D of the RGS Approved Code of Practice - Train Driving (click here for the links) - it's on page 59. This is evidence of your safety-critical work record and will be sent to you after your initial contact with the company. Your existing TOC is also obliged by RGS to pass on certain details (Appendix E - on page 61) about your existing safety record to your new employer. Mention your existing route and traction knowledge together with anything relevant to the job, such as whether you have experience as a supervisor, instructor or have any qualifications like D32, C25 or Health & Safety. If you have a good safety-of-line record (lack of SPADs & station over runs) and such like, say so; also if you have a good attendance record. If you are applying to move between a main line TOC and a metro or underground company or vice-versa your existing driver's qualifications will not be transferable. Nevertheless, a lot of people selected from elsewhere for assessment end up failing the psychometric tests or the medical. So, point out that you have already passed the psychometric tests (if you took them) and that you are currently medically fit for train driving - it should give you an edge. State what period of notice you have to give your current employer before you can leave. This can be a problem these days, although TOCs will often come to an arrangement between themselves, especially if your leaving does them a favour, such as if your depot is over-compliment.

* If You Have Been a Train Driver in the Past: If you have left the industry or been made redundant very recently your competencies will be valid for up to six months. If you apply to another TOC during this period you will be counted as being currently qualified. After that you go 'out of competency' and will be liable for some degree of refresher training. This state of affairs will persist for up to five years (see page 16-17 of the RGS) provided you can show evidence of your past qualifications. After that you will be considered as a new applicant and will require full re-training. This being the case it would be a good idea to try to obtain a copy of your documentation before you leave your old TOC in the first place - you might want it again one day, though your employer should retain it for five years anyway.

* If You Are a Foreign Train Driver: You must have the right to live and work in Britain and have a good standard of written and spoken English. Foreign train driving qualifications are not recognised on Network Rail or vice-versa. To drive trains in Britain you need a Certificate of Competence to drive trains on Network Rail infrastructure which can only be obtained in the employment of a British TOC. There are moves to introduce some sort of inter-available licence within the EU but this seems some way off - if it ever happens. So, all a foreign qualification does is to give you an advantage in the application process as it gives an employer some confidence that you are up to the job if they take you on. Once engaged you will have to go through the training process from scratch just like any new trainee. Rare as this pathway is to becoming a driver there are some people who have done this, mainly Dutch drivers working in south-east England.

* What You Don't Need to Mention: Political inclination, age, trade union activity, opinions about privatisation, religion, marital status or sexual orientation. You don't need to send a photograph either (unless asked).

Getting a Reply: You will, of course, hope for a fairly rapid answer to your application, or a least an acknowledgement that the TOC has received it. Unfortunately things don't work that way and some people report waiting many months for a reply. You must understand that when train companies advertise externally for Trainee Train Drivers they often get THOUSANDS of responses. When you consider that it takes someone five minutes to open each letter, scan to see what job is being applied for, grab a standard letter, stuff it in an envelope, address it by hand, chuck it in the 'Mail Out' tray, then file the application - that's eighty-three hours work for someone just to acknowledge a thousand applications! And all that is before they actually start to read the applications properly, assess them and sort them into piles of 'Yes', 'No' & 'Maybe'. Given this, I suggest you enclose a stamped, addressed postcard for acknowledgement or else send your application 'Recorded Signed For' from a Post Office so that someone has to sign for receipt. That way at least you know they received it and you can check this by 'Track & Trace' on the Royal Mail website. After that, patience is called for..... patience.

What are my Chances? Quite honestly, lousy, unless you've really got the staying power to achieve your goal. It breaks down something like this: When a TOC advertises for external applicants they get an average of 317 hopefuls for each train driving job. 106 will not even bother to pursue their own application, probably because the TOC has left it for so long that they have either lost interest or grown old and died. 146 get chopped by Personnel in the first sift (Hey, Joe, come and see what this pillock's written!!) before invitations are sent out, leaving only sixty-five. Of these another twenty-two will not bother to respond despite being invited to the assessment centre.... you can see how half-hearted a lot of your 'competition' is! Of the forty-three remaining, twenty-six will fail the assessments; a little more than half. The only reason the failure rate isn't higher at this stage is that most of the real dead-beats have already dropped out. Seven more will quit before the final stage (why, having got this far?). Six fail at the final interview and two more drop out before the medical, probably because they realise that some previously undisclosed condition or bad reference is going to be picked up. That leaves just two candidates to trouble BUPA of whom one will fall at the final hurdle. So, what do you reckon your chances are of being the last man standing out of that lot? Sadistically, even if you pass all this it doesn't necessarily mean that they are actually going to offer you the job.... and they can keep you hanging on for months waiting for a decision... and then they can change their mind....

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Some information on Train Driver selection and psychometric testing standards will be found in the Railway Group Standards Approved Code of Practice - Train Driving (Part C, from page 11 - click here for the links). The rules are laid down by the RSSB which the TOCs abide by - but may exceed.

If you are short listed on the basis of your written application you will be invited for...

They like to do the assessments in this order because this is the order of probability in which candidates are likely to fail - so it minimises the number they need to bother with at the next stage. If the interviews take place on the same day as the psychometric tests they will probably take place after lunch when those who have failed the psychometric tests have been sent home. However, these things may take place at different locations, so don't be surprised if the whole process is spread over three or four days. Because of this the stages may also not take place in the sequence listed here.

Psychometric tests to assess your suitability for driver training are carried out either by the TOCs themselves or at specialist independent centres. Those I aware of are at: Basingstoke (South West Trains); Birmingham (London Midland Trains); Cardiff (Arriva Trains Wales); Crewe (Virgin Trains); Crewe (Competence & Compliance); Derby (Catalis Rail Training / Sloan Shrago); Doncaster (EWS); Glasgow (First Scot Rail); London (South Eastern Trains); London (ITAC); Manchester (Northern); Newport (First Great Western); Southend (c2c); Knollys House, East Croydon (Southern); Stratford (ONE) and Watford (OPC).

The test administrator will welcome you and provide you with all the materials required for the tests (paper, pens instructions etc). Before each module (whether computerised or paper) you will be given the chance to work through some examples. The administrator will check you have answered the sample questions correctly, and if you haven't, will explain again what is required. Always make sure you understand what you are supposed to be doing in each test. Once the test starts the administrator cannot give you any assistance. The content and sequence of these tests will vary depending on the testing centre used but consists of four parts and will be along these lines:

First is a Mechanical Comprehension Test (MT4) which is designed to assess your understanding of basic mechanical principles, essential for the traction training you will receive as a Trainee Driver. You will be given a question booklet and an answer sheet (Virgin send out a practice booklet about a week before). The booklet will contain about thirty-six multiple-choice questions, and you are given eighteen minutes to answer as many of them as possible. The questions take the form of diagrams of mechanical structures and you are asked a question about each diagram. For example, a diagram might show four cogs and the question may be "If cog 'A' moves anti-clockwise, which way will cog 'C' move?" You are marked on both speed and accuracy so work as quickly as you can but only as fast as you can think. If you aren't sure about a particular question leave it and move on to the next; if you have time you can always come back to it. In this test you must achieve a fixed percentage of correct answers to progress. Don't worry if you aren't that mechanically minded, many of the questions are more a matter of logic rather than mechanics and you can just work them out! I understand that a book called Mechanical & Spatial Relations Tests by Joel Wiensen is a useful guide to these tests and has sample papers. Available from www.amazon.co.uk/ , the ISBN is 0-7641-2340-8. (Thanks to Steve for this tip). I have heard that at least one TOC has dropped this test as they found they too many people who would have made perfectly good drivers were failing it.

Second is the Trainability for Rules & Procedures (TRP) Test which is a pen & paper exercise consisting of two parts. This test is designed to assess your ability to learn new information and recall that information. The first part is a comprehension test in which you listen to a tape about a train driving related topic, read a long-ish passage on the same subject and are then given about five minutes to make notes. Be sure to write down the key points; it is a proven fact that information remains in your head longer if you write things down! After having about five minutes to study your own notes and the write-up they will be collected by the administrator and you will be given a question booklet and answer sheet. There will be around eighteen multiple-choice questions to answer about the subject you have just heard and read about. Each question has four possible answers and you have seven minutes to answer the questions. Typically, one answer is obviously wrong but two others will be pretty nearly right, so you need to tread carefully. The second part of the test is more complicated and is basically it is a 'logic' assessment. You will be given a booklet which contains, for example, a series of printed dials, and you will be given instructions as to what to do when the dials point to particular positions. Everything is multiple choice and you have eight minutes to do about forty of these exercises, so you have to work very fast. A variation on the TRP that you might encounter is the Rules Acquisition Aptitude Test (RAAT). This is very similar to the TRP except that instead of an audio tape you only read passages of information similar to the sort of rules and procedures you would encounter on the railway and then answer multiple choice questions about them. All these tests are quite complicated, but once you understand the logic behind them (and make sure you do understand from the administrator) you should be ok.

Third is the Concentration or Group Bourdon Test - 'the infamous dots'. This test measures your ability to maintain concentration while doing a repetitive task. It may be pen & paper or done on computer depending on the test centre. You see five pages or screens each with 25 columns. They contain patterns of three, four, five and six dots and you've got to cross out patterns of four. Every two minutes the tester says 'change' and you must move on to the next page or screen. Ten minutes of solid concentration. The point is to work as quickly and accurately as possible. This is one of those things that sounds as if it ought to be simple, but more people fail this test than anything else. A variation on the GBT which you may encounter with some companies (notably Virgin) is the Safe Concentration & Attention Test (SCAAT). This is in three parts of three pages each, one minute each for each part. The first is similar to the GBT in that you have to find and cross out a target shape among the three pages of various shapes. Next, you have to find and cross out two target shapes at the same time. In the last part you not only look for target shape on each of the three pages but also look for a shape that changes on each line; i.e. you have to do two things at once. An application which simulates the Group Bourdon Test has been created by someone who has done the test. The tool incorporates the SCAAT system too - both on-screen and in printed form so you can now practice for both tests prior to assessment. It allows you to see what is required and to hone your skills for the big day! Many thanks to Chris Gresham for creating this tool; you can download it free from here. (Chris, if you're reading this could you get in touch please?)

Fourth is the Fast Reaction & Co-Ordination Test. You will be allocated a computer with a monitor, keyboard, a pair of headphones and a set of foot pedals. When the test starts you will see a series of five flashing colours appear on the screen and you must press the appropriate coloured key on the keyboard when you see each one. At the same time, you will hear through the headphones a series of high and low pitched sounds and you must press the appropriate button (clearly marked HI and LO) on the keyboard. As if that wasn't enough, you will also see yellow boxes appearing at the bottom left and right of the screen when you must press the appropriate (left or right) foot pedal. You get two practice runs then two six minute tests. During the first test the stimuli speed up twice during the course of the test. As the colours and sounds speed up, you will get lost - everyone does. The point is to see how far you get and how you recover. Do not just hit out at anything in the hope of catching up; you will lose points for pressing incorrect buttons. Simply pause for a while, compose yourself, then try and pick the test up again where you're at. In the second test you respond to the stimuli at your own pace for the full six minutes. Be warned though - you can't just idle along slowly, you have to go as fast as you can manage or you will fail. Both tests are marked on speed and accuracy. People who have failed and re-taken this test report that playing computer games like Tetris or Space Invaders for some time beforehand can be very helpful. (You can download these sorts of games from various shareware websites). A toy called 'Bop-It' is also strongly recommended as a preparation for this test. Available from www.amazon.co.uk/ of from toy shops at about £20.

The Manager Interview. This is a conventional job interview, probably with an operations manager and a drivers' depot manager. They will ask you why you want to join the company, why you think you would be good at the job you are applying for and how you think you would fit in. Make sure you have done your homework about the company, its activities, geographical range, depot structure, parent company etc. because you're bound to be asked about it. You can hardly apply to Southern and then ask if they run services to places like Peterborough and Oxford or whether they run freight trains! They may also ask you questions such as "What have you done in your current job that has involved using co-ordination?; If I asked your employer what they think of you, what would they say?; If I asked your mother what she thought of you, what would she say? or Would you be able to cope if someone decide to jump in front of the train you were driving?"

The Structured Interview will probably come next. This is an interview conducted according to laid down guidelines to maintain fairness and non-discrimination and will probably be given by a couple of people from the Personnel Department.

Before the interview starts you will be given a form to complete which will ask you to write a brief description of some experiences you have had. For example "Describe a time when you had to cope in an emergency. Give an example of when you have worked as part of a team. When have you had to use procedures? How did you use the procedures? Where did you learn these procedures? Have you been in an emergency situation before? What did you do? Have you ever done a training course that lasted more than two weeks and what was it? What was your biggest achievement on that course? Why do you think this was your biggest achievement? Have you ever had to deal with a big problem? How did you solve it? Have you ever had to work for long periods of time on your own? How long at a time?"

After about twenty-five minutes the interviewer will take this form and, during the interview, ask you to expand on your brief descriptions. A lot of supplementary questions will be along the lines of "How did you feel about this?" This interview will last about an hour. The questions may be extremely detailed and probing, so make sure you use examples of things which you don't mind discussing and can be honest about.

If you fail your Trainee Driver's Assessment you must wait at least six months before you can re-take it. If you fail twice you will not be considered further by any company - ever. A large part of the point of these tests is to see if you can do them, not whether you can learn to do them by repetition, which would be a rather different thing. The various testing centres share records, so one will know straight away if you have already failed the tests elsewhere - they aren't that thick! If you failed on only one part of the tests the first time around you will have to take the whole series again on your second try (note: The RSSB does not in fact require this but most TOCs seem to insist upon it). If you passed it used to be that you were required to begin training within one year or you would have to do the assessment again, however that has now changed somewhat. The Railway Group Standard has been amended such that the results of drivers' psychometric tests may be regarded as valid for a period of 5 years from the date of assessment, unless the individual has had a significant life event that may have caused a decrease in cognitive ability (serious illness, accident etc.). This may be applied retrospectively to applicants assessed since 1st July 2004. However, you should understand that although the RGS allows tests to be counted as valid for up to five years there is no reason why a TOC cannot impose a more restrictive limit. E-mails I have received indicate that some companies will only accept tests as valid for two or three years.

There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction in the industry with the current psychometric assessment techniques and, to those of us who have been involved in driver training, the reasons aren't hard to fathom. I have seen many people who appear eminently fit to become train drivers unable to progress because they have not been able to pass the psychometrics. Equally, there have been a significant number of conductors who are very obviously unsuitable but who have been allowed to go forward for training simply because they have passed the tests. Some of these have then failed the driving assessments, but only after much time and expense. Worse still, some have passed and then their shortcomings have manifested themselves in a string of safety-of-line incidents, often resulting in their being sacked or taken out of the driving grade.

Because of this there are indications that a new system may be introduced. It is still very much at the development stage but it would probably be better aligned with the practical realities of train driving, perhaps using some kind of simulator. It is also suggested that, though the new system would still have the 'two-strikes-and-your-out' element, past failures under the existing system might not be taken into account. Maybe.

I mentioned above that the components of the tests and interviews are not necessarily conducted in the order listed. People have complained to me that they have started on the psychometric tests but have not been allowed to finish them before being rejected, despite the fact that they have not actually failed any of the psychometric elements. This can be listed as a psychometric 'fail' which is really tough given that you only have two shots at this and may want to try elsewhere. The problem is that the TOCs are very inward looking and look no further than the context of your immediate job application, particularly as they are paying for the process. It doesn't seem to occur to them that you might have a wider interest in the outcome and ownership of your test results beyond the immediate job you are applying for. For this reason I now strongly advise you to pay to put yourself through the psychometric tests. Not only will you be sure to finish them all but there is then no doubt about your ownership of your own results and it should give you an edge in applying for a job. It costs around £170 to £200 but is well worth the investment if you're serious about this. One of the firms that does these tests is CCL at Crewe. Alternatively you can click here for information about how to go through the tests with EWS at their at Doncaster assessment centre, just outside the station. (Thanks to Jon for this tip). I have had good reports about EWS in this regard; good at getting back to clients, answering questions and giving a choice of dates.

Training yourself: Some people have asked me if it is possible to pay to put yourself through the whole driver training course. The answer is 'no'. The British railway industry is not structured like the airlines where individuals can pay to have themselves trained as pilots at various private flight schools bef