GWR - Train Manager / Conductor Recruitment and Discussion

[McReadie]

Yes I've failed the SCAAT at least 3 times although I've feeling it's been one each at three different TOCs. All OPC tests.

All you can do then is reapply and see if the fails with the other TOCs are a factor, but it probably won't be.
Was your last fail with GWR? If it was then the other fails don't seem to have been an issue.

 

[voyagerdude220]

All you can do then is reapply and see if the fails with the other TOCs are a factor, but it probably won't be.
Was your last fail with GWR? If it was then the other fails don't seem to have been an issue.

I can't remember which TOC was my most recent unsuccessful TOC because it would have been nearly a year ago.

 

[AlpArslan]

I got a conditional offer for a conductor on GWR but OH flagged a couple of issues - both can be managed okay. The OH said it would just delay the process but I have not heard anything from recruitment for more than three weeks - I have emailed them but no reply as yet. Any advice?

 

[Frenchy7119]

Well fingers crossed for you hope
It gets sorted ! What depo is that for

 

[AlpArslan]

Well fingers crossed for you hope
It gets sorted ! What depo is that for

Reading

 

[jonesy2026]

You have 2 attempts.
Have you failed before with another TOC? If so, what is it an OPC test?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Jan 2026 ==


I'm sorry to hear that.
No, just the one you failed (if reapplying with GWR). Though I'm not sure if you have to do the numerical again.
You can always ask.

Tha'ts okay, I did answer all 30 questions but maybe I rushed them a little. That good to know that I need to just redo the one I failed on and possibly numerical. I shall wait for it to reopen again and then apply. thank you for your help

 

[Frenchy7119]

Are there any persons here who applied for TM at Swansea who applied in the January 2025 intake ???

 

[IanTO]

Thought I'd jump on this thread. I've passed the 4 tests for the TM role and had an email saying the next stage will be an interview. From reading this thread, seems like it could happen in weeks or months. I'm in no rush. Quick question, where do the TM from Paddington sign?

 

[Frenchy7119]

Thought I'd jump on this thread. I've passed the 4 tests for the TM role and had an email saying the next stage will be an interview. From reading this thread, seems like it could happen in weeks or months. I'm in no rush. Quick question, where do the TM from Paddington sign?

Sorry what do you mean by sign ??

 

[D1015]

I believe he is asking the route card of the Paddington TMs, ie what route do they run/serve.
@IanTO - the answer would be on this thread : https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/different-guard-depot-route-and-traction-cards.213958/

 

[Frenchy7119]

How is every one doing? did
Any one hear back or heard of any moment? I wrote to recruitment asking for any update as been 16 months was told would send onto local recruitment manager but never heard back!

 

[DadPeanut]

Hello, I'm sorry if this has been covered, I can't find any concrete advice about it. Does anyone know if the RAAT is timed? Is there a set amount of questions etc? Thanks guys

 

[rob wright]

Yes all assessments are timed

 

[Railway1642]

How is every one doing? did
Any one hear back or heard of any moment? I wrote to recruitment asking for any update as been 16 months was told would send onto local recruitment manager but never heard back!

Is it still Swansea you’re waiting on?

 

[D1015]

All assessments are timed.
As for intakes, I've now been told that I am in a three year talent pool but that there is no foreseeable intake for the "next financial year" at the depot I interviewed for.

 

[Frenchy7119]

Is it still Swansea you’re waiting on?

Yea mate still waiting on Swansea !

 

[TheSwarm2012]

How is every one doing? did
Any one hear back or heard of any moment? I wrote to recruitment asking for any update as been 16 months was told would send onto local recruitment manager but never heard back!

I’ve started training. You’ve had some rotten luck waiting in the pool for so long never heard of an example of it taking as long as yours

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Mar 2026 ==

All assessments are timed.
As for intakes, I've now been told that I am in a three year talent pool but that there is no foreseeable intake for the "next financial year" at the depot I interviewed for.

What depot?

 

[D1015]

I’ve started training. You’ve had some rotten luck waiting in the pool for so long never heard of an example of it taking as long as yours

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Mar 2026 ==


What depot?

Worcester.

 

[TheSwarm2012]

Worcester.

There’s a guy on my course for Worcester and there was one on the course infront too so you might get some luck

 

[D1015]

There’s a guy on my course for Worcester and there was one on the course infront too so you might get some luck

Thanks for the gen - though the recruitment email about nothing for the next financial year I think puts paid. Oh well. Looks like I play my hole card and take up a different trade then.

 

[Frenchy7119]

All assessments are timed.
As for intakes, I've now been told that I am in a three year talent pool but that there is no foreseeable intake for the "next financial year" at the depot I interviewed for.

All noted and yea also told 3 years to get a position, so guess waiting game those on a course hope you enjoy !!!

 

[GWRTC]

I applied for a Conductor Role for Temple meads in January and had my interview yesterday. Ive gotten an email saying that I was successful and am now in the talent pool. On average how long would I be expecting to wait for them to pick me for a job? (I know that its a score based system and has nothing to do with who got into the pool first, but I’m pretty sure I did very well in my interview and tests so fingers crossed its soon…)

 

[D1015]

I applied for a Conductor Role for Temple meads in January and had my interview yesterday. Ive gotten an email saying that I was successful and am now in the talent pool. On average how long would I be expecting to wait for them to pick me for a job? (I know that its a score based system and has nothing to do with who got into the pool first, but I’m pretty sure I did very well in my interview and tests so fingers crossed its soon…)

Could be a piece of string my dude. My wait time went from six-nine months to the standard 3 years within two months at different points of contact.

 

[Frenchy7119]

I applied for a Conductor Role for Temple meads in January and had my interview yesterday. Ive gotten an email saying that I was successful and am now in the talent pool. On average how long would I be expecting to wait for them to pick me for a job? (I know that its a score based system and has nothing to do with who got into the pool first, but I’m pretty sure I did very well in my interview and tests so fingers crossed its soon…)

Well done for getting this far and I was placed in talent pool Aug 2024 and still waiting but I know some who were called up after 4 weeks so fingers crossed

 

[GWRTC]

Well done for getting this far and I was placed in talent pool Aug 2024 and still waiting but I know some who were called up after 4 weeks so fingers crossed

Thank you! I’m very excited, fingers crossed I get called up soon…the job market is quite difficult right now :.(

 

[TheSwarm2012]

I applied for a Conductor Role for Temple meads in January and had my interview yesterday. Ive gotten an email saying that I was successful and am now in the talent pool. On average how long would I be expecting to wait for them to pick me for a job? (I know that its a score based system and has nothing to do with who got into the pool first, but I’m pretty sure I did very well in my interview and tests so fingers crossed its soon…)

I was only about 5 months from Interview to start date. Really quite small for the railway. Temple meads is a massive depot with loads of movement currently so hopefully not as long as other depots

 

[Zugaga]

Hello everyone,

I received an email from GWR on Thursday the 19th of March at 15:44 stating "You will receive several emails after a week, each inviting you to complete a test". Let's call this Email One

Today at 15:17 I received let's-call-it-Email Two asking me to log in and do 'an assessment'. So far, so what you may ask...but there's more.

I applied in December of 2023 and I must have A) done numerical reasoning and B) passed, because I got onto ticket checking.

Email One stated: "We have reviewed your application to identify any tests you may have previously completed and have updated your application accordingly. Test results are valid for three years; however, if a previously completed test has less than six months remaining before expiry, it will be resent for you to complete again."

December being >6 months after March, I thought this would mean that I didn't need to (re-)do numerical reasoning. However, that was what awaited me when I logged in.

What Email Two said on the subject was this: "If you believe you have successfully completed this test within the past six months, please contact us".

Not wishing to prejudice my application before it had really even started, I simply ignored this anomaly and got on with the assessment but does this sort of thing happen a lot with GWR? For sure, I have met rail replacement bus drivers who aren't that keen on working for First.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Not wishing to prejudice my application before it had really even started, I simply ignored this anomaly and got on with the assessment but does this sort of thing happen a lot with GWR? For sure, I have met rail replacement bus drivers who aren't that keen on working for First.

As I'm looking to relocate from one area of the UK to another, I've experience of dealing with several TOCs. GWR are a TOC I don't view positively about at all (based on my experiences with their Recruitment team, nothing to do with my actual on train journeys with them).

Last year I was invited to an "Assessment Day" for a place in GWR's Talent Pool for various different Station based Customer Service Assistant jobs, with the day held in Bristol. Despite me already working for a TOC for the last 10+ years in a Ticket Office job and also having passed GWR's online Despatch test, I was asked to leave the Assessment Day as I'd not met the required standard during the Group Exercise.

Strangely the Group Exercise involved us dealing with a mock incident at an Airport.. The GWR Staff even said themselves they'd deliberately not based the exercise on a Railway related subject "in case people who already worked on the Railway got an unfair advantage."

GWR were also insistent that I sent them my medical records when I requested Reasonable Adjustments as I knew I'd struggle with the Group Exercise (I'm Autistic) then never implemented anything.

Of course I'm naturally bitter towards GWR because of this.

Call me paranoid but before the Assessment Day, I'd never failed their Customer Service online assessments (where they tell you about a scenario, give you 4 different ways of dealing with it and you have to pick which option would be the best and which one would be the worst way of dealing with it.)

But since then I've failed every single one.

 

[Zugaga]

As I'm looking to relocate from one area of the UK to another, I've experience of dealing with several TOCs. GWR are a TOC I don't view positively about at all (based on my experiences with their Recruitment team, nothing to do with my actual on train journeys with them).

Last year I was invited to an "Assessment Day" for a place in GWR's Talent Pool for various different Station based Customer Service Assistant jobs, with the day held in Bristol. Despite me already working for a TOC for the last 10+ years in a Ticket Office job and also having passed GWR's online Despatch test, I was asked to leave the Assessment Day as I'd not met the required standard during the Group Exercise.

Strangely the Group Exercise involved us dealing with a mock incident at an Airport.. The GWR Staff even said themselves they'd deliberately not based the exercise on a Railway related subject "in case people who already worked on the Railway got an unfair advantage."

GWR were also insistent that I sent them my medical records when I requested Reasonable Adjustments as I knew I'd struggle with the Group Exercise (I'm Autistic) then never implemented anything.

Of course I'm naturally bitter towards GWR because of this.

Call me paranoid but before the Assessment Day, I'd never failed their Customer Service online assessments (where they tell you about a scenario, give you 4 different ways of dealing with it and you have to pick which option would be the best and which one would be the worst way of dealing with it.)

But since then I've failed every single one.

Many thanks for this. Incidentally, advice from the accessibility training I had for my first & so far only railway job was not to disclose a protected characteristic until interview stage. Informally, the consensus seems to be that even then you might have to self-censor. As a non-neurotypical person myself I could go into a real diatribe about this and it's not just the railway, but it seems to me that the bottom line is that precisely because the law says employers have to make reasonable adjustments, they are less likely to hire someone who needs them in the first place if they can find someone who doesn't because that's a way to economise right there. I think it was Network Rail who had a webinar on this, with a guest who had written books with titles like it tucks, but can we make it tuck less (changing the first letter of one word there to circumvent the automatic summon mods feature).

 

[voyagerdude220]

Many thanks for this. Incidentally, advice from the accessibility training I had for my first & so far only railway job was not to disclose a protected characteristic until interview stage. Informally, the consensus seems to be that even then you might have to self-censor. As a non-neurotypical person myself I could go into a real diatribe about this and it's not just the railway, but it seems to me that the bottom line is that precisely because the law says employers have to make reasonable adjustments, they are less likely to hire someone who needs them in the first place if they can find someone who doesn't because that's a way to economise right there. I think it was Network Rail who had a webinar on this, with a guest who had written books with titles like it tucks, but can we make it tuck less (changing the first letter of one word there to circumvent the automatic summon mods feature).

You're welcome. Thank you for your advice.