Driver shift patterns Shrewsbury Depot?

[Robc21]

Hi all. Are there any west Midlands railway drivers here from Shrewsbury? I'm currently going through the assessment process and wanting to get an idea of what to expect at Shrewsbuy depot. Even though I know there's a 90% failure rate for the assessments. Got to be positive though. What's the earliest / latest shifts you do? Is there a night shift turn? I've heard there might be a 4 day week? is this correct and do you have set days off per week. sundays included or not? A lot of questions....but I'm very keen to find out. Cheers.

 

[piers1234]

Normally WMT shift pattern is the rolling 2 set rest days per week
A long 5 weekend every 3 weeks.

E.g.

week 1 - Mon and Tues off.
Week 2 - weds and Thurs off.
Week - Friday and Saturday off


Sunday is outside and not committed.

 

[Robc21]

Normally WMT shift pattern is the rolling 2 set rest days per week
A long 5 weekend every 3 weeks.

E.g.

week 1 - Mon and Tues off.
Week 2 - weds and Thurs off.
Week - Friday and Saturday off


Sunday is outside and not committed.

Thanks pal. Very helpful and that pattern looks as I hoped. Does anyone know what the earliest starts would be and the latest finish time please? is there a night shift for Shunting trains about?

 

[Odin]

Hi all. Are there any west Midlands railway drivers here from Shrewsbury? I'm currently going through the assessment process and wanting to get an idea of what to expect at Shrewsbuy depot. Even though I know there's a 90% failure rate for the assessments. Got to be positive though. What's the earliest / latest shifts you do? Is there a night shift turn? I've heard there might be a 4 day week? is this correct and do you have set days off per week. sundays included or not? A lot of questions....but I'm very keen to find out. Cheers.

How do you know there's a 90% failure rate for the assessments?

Good luck with your application.

 

[Undiscovered]

AFAIK depot is at compliment, with DIs tied up with a recent intake of trainees.

Earliest start is approx 0430 for unit prep ahead of start of service. There may be a spare turn that starts earlier, not sure.
Latest finish is approx 0200 after a shunt onto the yard and then walking back to the depot to complete Driver In Charge (paperwork) duties.

 

[Robc21]

How do you know there's a 90% failure rate for the assessments?

Good luck with your application.

Thanks! It might even be higher, I think I was just trying to say most don't get through. Think I'll be joining the 90% to be honest, think I messed up one of the tests. ☹️

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Aug 2025 ==

AFAIK depot is at compliment, with DIs tied up with a recent intake of trainees.

Earliest start is approx 0430 for unit prep ahead of start of service. There may be a spare turn that starts earlier, not sure.
Latest finish is approx 0200 after a shunt onto the yard and then walking back to the depot to complete Driver In Charge (paperwork) duties.

Thanks for the info. Does that mean that anyone who did pass the assessment would probably be languishing in the talent pool for quite some time?

 

[Undiscovered]

Thanks for the info. Does that mean that anyone who did pass the assessment would probably be languishing in the talent pool for quite some time?

i don't know. There some people awaiting DM interviews from the recruitment drive 12/18months ago, and some in OPC assessment phases from this years applications.

Across the company, it seems, they're expecting a lot of drivers to retire soon so it may not be that long of a wait. As well, a lot of internal candidates, which is unusual, have also been successful, so there's always other positions coming up.
Besides, if you've got your OPC passes, you can always apply elsewhere.