CrossCountry - Apprentice Train Driver - Recruitment Discussion

[chalkijr]

Thanks. For Northern Manchester is too far as they have restricted the commute time to 45 minutes at 0800 on a Monday morning so Liverpool is my only depot that I can apply for.
haven’t succeeded with TPE or Cross Country in these recent recruitment drives unfortunately so I have to hold out for when Lime St next comes up.
Hopefully you get some good news soon with CC. I bet it painful being so far along in the process with no updates.

Fair does mate, hopefully a LLS vacancy pops up for you then.

Yeah I'm just confused as to why some of us haven't been told yet, either way...

I’ve just banged one in for northern after being unsuccessful with TPE, still waiting on the XC outcome though.

The selection process with northern sounds brutal, having to attend an in person group test session throughout the day, separate to the psychometrics. I’ve not heard of that with any other TOC before

I'm not even bothering with them, every time I've applied I get a rejection after the initial application...
Plus I live 40/45 minutes away at that time in the morning and there 45 minutes rule as you say makes it pointless for me to apply.

 

[Jordan1991]

Fair does mate, hopefully a LLS vacancy pops up for you then.

Yeah I'm just confused as to why some of us haven't been told yet, either way...

I'm not even bothering with them, every time I've applied I get a rejection after the initial application...
Plus I live 40/45 minutes away at that time in the morning and there 45 minutes rule as you say makes it pointless for me to apply.

Really are they that bad? I’ve only applied once, I got rejected even though i have all my psychometrics passed. I do think that I didn’t answer the questions properly though, so I’ve improved that this time so will have to wait and see.. I’m about 30 mins away without traffic and about 40-45 with traffic. Are they that strict on it?

 

[chalkijr]

Really are they that bad? I’ve only applied once, I got rejected even though i have all my psychometrics passed. I do think that I didn’t answer the questions properly though, so I’ve improved that this time so will have to wait and see.. I’m about 30 mins away without traffic and about 40-45 with traffic. Are they that strict on it?

Well that's just my experience. It might be totally different for you ofcourse, with having different answers etc. So best of luck in your application with them mate.

It seems to me that a lot of recruitment teams don't actually care if you've already passed your psychometrics, as it's certainly not done me any favours yet lol. But it's nice to not have to resit them every time a vacancy appears.

 

[Jordan1991]

Well that's just my experience. It might be totally different for you ofcourse, with having different answers etc. So best of luck in your application with them mate.

It seems to me that a lot of recruitment teams don't actually care if you've already passed your psychometrics, as it's certainly not done me any favours yet lol. But it's nice to not have to resit them every time a vacancy appears.

Thanks mate appreciate it.

You’d think they'd want to save money and go with the people who they know are already capable. Fingers crossed anyway! Feel like just sticking with the talent bank I’m in now and just holding out for the next 2.5 years. Seems to be crazy hard these days to get anywhere with the applications

 

[Hpvs20]

seems strange that nobody has yet had any further communication. Maybe they’ve decided to put it on hold ?

 

[brocktrainguy]

I’m not worried just yet they do tend to take a long time to get back to you

 

[Reactor Scram]

seems strange that nobody has yet had any further communication. Maybe they’ve decided to put it on hold ?

With the Sept 23 campaign, most were not contacted for around 5 months. Stay patient, for now.

 

[brocktrainguy]

With the Sept 23 campaign, most were not contacted for around 5 months. Stay patient, for now.

Completely agree yes part of me is impatient and wants to be told as soon as possible, but Driver recruitment moves at a snails pace. I spoke to a train driver for cross country two weeks ago on the platform , and he said they get 30,000 applicants for one job it’s gonna take a while to sift through it all

 

[Kems91]

Sorry to hear pal. When did you get the message?

I'm literally still in limbo... No email and no call (Manchester)

Also got the boot out of the process

but have put on in for Northern at Manchester but the 45 min thing is a stretch for me too and i only live in Stalybridge but traffic on the M67 and Hyde road these days in wild! and Ashton Old road isnt much better! can easily take longer that 45 mins some days haha!

 

[minion37]

Any news, any phone calls for anyone who did applied to Bournemouth?

 

[brocktrainguy]

I’m bmouth and nothing yet

 

[JustG]

Anyone from ‘23 been allocated a start date for Leeds depot?

 

[minion37]

I’m bmouth and nothing yet

I managed to talk with a few people from XC during my journey.
Unfortunately, I can't confirm this information with anyone.
Apparently, even if we haven’t received rejection emails, our applications can still show as “pending.” They’ve already selected and contacted the people they need.
The “pending” status can remain like that for a few months.
Like I said, I know this from someone who works on the board staff. So there is anyone here, who can confirm that?

 

[chalkijr]

I managed to talk with a few people from XC during my journey.
Unfortunately, I can't confirm this information with anyone.
Apparently, even if we haven’t received rejection emails, our applications can still show as “pending.” They’ve already selected and contacted the people they need.
The “pending” status can remain like that for a few months.
Like I said, I know this from someone who works on the board staff. So there is anyone here, who can confirm that?

Maybe that's the case, maybe not. No news is always good news until you are told otherwise pal. So just try to put it to the back of your mind for now, that's all I'm doing.

They might be doing batches of candidates, and some candidates already have OPC passes as well so might be leaving it longer for some of us.

Also you never know they might be on holiday so it's taking longer to go through everything and everybody lol. You just never know unfortunately...

 

[brocktrainguy]

I managed to talk with a few people from XC during my journey.
Unfortunately, I can't confirm this information with anyone.
Apparently, even if we haven’t received rejection emails, our applications can still show as “pending.” They’ve already selected and contacted the people they need.
The “pending” status can remain like that for a few months.
Like I said, I know this from someone who works on the board staff. So there is anyone here, who can confirm that?

I hope not but all we can do is wait

 

[class 9]

Anyone from ‘23 been allocated a start date for Leeds depot?

All the recent trainees at Leeds have been internal promotions, there's also a couple of external qualified Drivers waiting start dates.

 

[KSC]

Who is best to apply for if you live in Wolverhampton reccomendations please

 

[timmy827]

Has anyone who applied to Plymouth heard anything? I’ve not had any comms since the SHL assessments. I’ve just been catching up on this thread and it looks like I might be out of the running for this round but just thought I’d check!

 

[chalkijr]

Has anyone who applied to Plymouth heard anything? I’ve not had any comms since the SHL assessments. I’ve just been catching up on this thread and it looks like I might be out of the running for this round but just thought I’d check!

Does your status still show as pending?

 

[timmy827]

Does your status still show as pending?

Yes but there’s a message further up this thread saying they’ve already contacted everyone they need regardless of status in the portal.

 

[ValentaFan1974]

Has anyone who applied to Plymouth heard anything? I’ve not had any comms since the SHL assessments. I’ve just been catching up on this thread and it looks like I might be out of the running for this round but just thought I’d check!

Still showing as pending for me.

 

[chalkijr]

Yes but there’s a message further up this thread saying they’ve already contacted everyone they need regardless of status in the portal.

Yeah true, but that's just someone's opinion. They don't know that 100%. I would say you're still in it until told otherwise.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Aug 2025 ==

Still showing as pending for me.

Same here

 

[minion37]

Same here, pending ..did applied to Bournemouth.

 

[Gareth82]

Has anyone who applied to Plymouth heard anything? I’ve not had any comms since the SHL assessments. I’ve just been catching up on this thread and it looks like I might be out of the running for this round but just thought I’d check!

I also applied for Plymouth and have not heard anything since the SHL assessments. I’m just assuming no news is good news until told otherwise. XC comms as mentioned throughout this thread and from others who have been through the process all say that they are not the greatest. Just a waiting game I suppose.

 

[Jordan1991]

I also applied for Plymouth and have not heard anything since the SHL assessments. I’m just assuming no news is good news until told otherwise. XC comms as mentioned throughout this thread and from others who have been through the process all say that they are not the greatest. Just a waiting game I suppose.

I had a family member apply for the Plymouth one and they had a rejection email months ago so it all seems very strange

 

[chalkijr]

Normally at this point I would just drop them an email to double check what's going on but I literally can't find a recruitment email address...

 

[softquaser]

For those who have recently done the tests. It will likely be several months before you receive an update. I did my tests in September 2023 and I didn't hear anything until about February 2024

 

[chalkijr]

For those who have recently done the tests. It will likely be several months before you receive an update. I did my tests in September 2023 and I didn't hear anything until about February 2024

So you didn't get any form of contact stating you'd passed the tests then?

 

[JH-OB]

So you didn't get any form of contact stating you'd passed the tests then?

Generally, no news is good news is rail recruitment.

 

[Jordan1991]

For those who have recently done the tests. It will likely be several months before you receive an update. I did my tests in September 2023 and I didn't hear anything until about February 2024

Do you mean the initial online sift tests, or the psychometrics?

It seems strange that some here have already been contacted and others haven’t