EMR - Trainee Train Drivers - Recruitment Discussion

[nadiarail]

I believe 50k is the training salary. Someone further up posted this:

Thank you for confirming.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Sep 2026 ==

I believe 50k is the training salary. Someone further up posted this:

Thank you for confirming!

 

[mr_ixolite]

thank you for this, I have just done arctic shores quite badly but you never know. It was arrows, shape rules and safe combination

yeah that wasn't good, think I might have messed the arrows one up, got more than a few wrong on that one, laughingly my feedback for that section said that I was "prone to making rushed decisions" but if I took too long to think about it during the test, particularly towards the end when it speeds up, I was getting timed out. So are you testing my decision making capabilities or my reaction speeds? because when you're giving me less than a second to process which way an arrow is pointing and then scan the background to see if it's bloody x's or not, before timing me out telling me I'm too slow, you're going to get rushed decisions Hopefully I dragged my score up enough with the other 2 which I did well on

 

[md81]

yeah that wasn't good, think I might have messed the arrows one up, got more than a few wrong on that one, laughingly my feedback for that section said that I was "prone to making rushed decisions" but if I took too long to think about it during the test, particularly towards the end when it speeds up, I was getting timed out. So are you testing my decision making capabilities or my reaction speeds? because when you're giving me less than a second to process which way an arrow is pointing and then scan the background to see if it's bloody x's or not, before timing me out telling me I'm too slow, you're going to get rushed decisions Hopefully I dragged my score up enough with the other 2 which I did well on

I didnt get through, I got the email telling me. Im sure theres an element of luck involved which is not ideal

 

[mr_ixolite]

I didnt get through, I got the email telling me. Im sure theres an element of luck involved which is not ideal

sorry to hear that, Definitely an element of luck in making it past the first sift of any application, I applied for wmt a little while ago with a full psychometrics pass already under my belt (so a reasonably safe bet from their point of view you would think as it saves them time and money) and didn't make it past first sift

 

[Layaboutlarry]

Just finished it. There are three exercises, which are basically mini games (nothing to do with trains at all).

One was about focusing on an arrow surrounded by other arrows/dashes/crosses and picking the right direction in time using two keys.

Next one was similar but there are two boxes where a number inside a shape will come up. You have to press a certain key depending on which box it's in and whether it's an odd/even number or rounded/non-rounded shape.

The last one was absolute torture, it was basically a test of your reaction time. You have to crack a safe by hitting the space bar when the right number is highlighted. This gets progressively more ridiculous in terms of speed and it's quite likely you will want to give up before getting all the numbers! (I did and it didn't seem to affect my score)

Don't bother preparing for any of these but maybe don't do it when you're tired or distracted.

Has everyone had the same 3 tests?

 

[Twin82]

Has everyone had the same 3 tests?

Everyone does the same 3 test for the arctic shores online assessment if that’s what you’re asking.

 

[sebspeed]

Yep, didn’t make it through this time. Closing date was midnight on Sunday and email received 1am Monday, meaning that the contents of the application form weren’t considered. (I’ve passed the sift twice before).
Very disappointing. Perhaps a touch of sour grapes, but I’m not sure Arctic Shores is the best way of sifting candidates!

 

[Layaboutlarry]

Everyone does the same 3 test for the arctic shores online assessment if that’s what you’re asking.

Excellent, thanks

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Sep 2026 ==

I got an email about 20 minutes ago saying I was successful! It says the next stage is OPC Stage 1 testing in Watford on the 8th of September.

Absolutely bricking it but super exciting!

If you don't mind me asking, what was your arctic shores feedback report on the dots scale after their test? Just trying to work out if my mates is looking good

 

[coasting8816]

Excellent, thanks

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Sep 2026 ==


If you don't mind me asking, what was your arctic shores feedback report on the dots scale after their test? Just trying to work out if my mates is looking good

I had 4s for all the categories. This was with a few mistakes in the first two tests and unlocking all but the last safe in the last test.

On a separate note, it is mad that Arctic Shores takes precedence over OPC! In an ideal world there should be a box you tick to say you've already passed OPC (although I suppose that could be easily abused and create extra burden for the HR team)

 

[sebspeed]

I had 4s for all the categories. This was with a few mistakes in the first two tests and unlocking all but the last safe in the last test.

On a separate note, it is mad that Arctic Shores takes precedence over OPC! In an ideal world there should be a box you tick to say you've already passed OPC (although I suppose that could be easily abused and create extra burden for the HR team)

Absolutely. I’d already passed the sift twice and the OPC. With five mins practice on the Arctic Shores this morning I was in the 90th percentile. Just had a ‘mare on the day!

 

[mr_ixolite]

I’m not sure Arctic Shores is the best way of sifting candidates!

It's absolutely not, from the bit of research I did it seems that it's used across a wide variety of industries and I've not seen a good word said about it. I have completed a similar sifting test for another Toc and although that one also had little to do with the skills required to be a driver it was at least more of an intelligence and aptitude test rather than Arctic Shores "Here's a computer game you have never played before, go and do well on it, we'll give you a practice test, but it's nothing like the real one and it basically just tells you that you will need to use the Q and P keys on your keyboard for the real tests, we could have just told you this, but dressing it up as a practice lest looks fancier, good luck!

 

[flexmade]

hey guys I finished my application to the Nottingham depot driver trainee role, it’s my first time applying for a role at EMR and I haven’t heard anything since completing my arctic shores tests but I’m seeing people already getting emails back, slightly anxious from my arctic shores test results I scored 4/4 for the arrows test and the padlock one but only 2/4 for the one with the odd numbers and shapes one im hoping that doesn’t affect my shot at the role too much…

 

[coasting8816]

hey guys I finished my application to the Nottingham depot driver trainee role, it’s my first time applying for a role at EMR and I haven’t heard anything since completing my arctic shores tests but I’m seeing people already getting emails back, slightly anxious from my arctic shores test results I scored 4/4 for the arrows test and the padlock one but only 2/4 for the one with the odd numbers and shapes one im hoping that doesn’t affect my shot at the role too much…

It'll take a couple of days to a week to hear back after Arctic Shores. For the mainline driver role that went up not too long ago it seems that you needed 4/4 for everything to pass the sift but this probably depends on application numbers. Good luck

 

[flexmade]

It'll take a couple of days to a week to hear back after Arctic Shores. For the mainline driver role that went up not too long ago it seems that you needed 4/4 for everything to pass the sift but this probably depends on application numbers. Good luck

alright thank you I was just wondering because i had seen people already getting rejection emails just after a day of doing the arctic shores stuff, did you manage to make it past the first sift yourself for the mainline role if you applied?? I also completed my application on Friday so id assume id get a message back by this Friday hopefully.

 

[nadiarail]

Has anyone done the EMR assessment day and knows what to expect? Asking as I've had negative experiences in the past with group activities in assessment days as I don't usually shine due to not being the most extroverted/talkative.

 

[Unobrow]

Has anyone done the EMR assessment day and knows what to expect? Asking as I've had negative experiences in the past with group activities in assessment days as I don't usually shine due to not being the most extroverted/talkative.

I did it 4/5hrs ago so it may have changed since then. They wanted us to introduce ourselves and give a little bit of info. If you’re the first as I was, there was no time to think about it. There are also group exercises which were generally fun. I suspect on these they wanted to see you at least take part and offer ideas, not necessarily try and be the leader and talk over/down to others. I am quite extrovert so found most of it ok, although there was also a quick fire “interview’ with each of the 4 managers I think there were to see I presume, how flustered you got under pressure.

Not something you can really practice for, just go in, don’t panic or worry about it and be yourself. I suspect these things will show someone trying to be clever and quickly getting out of their depth. I’ll also suggest, that in the group exercises, there weren’t necessarily right or wrong answers, just reasonable participation.

 

[flexmade]

I’m hoping they post out another mainline driver role in somewhere like Kettering again since that’s way more closer to me than St Pancras, would defo be applying to that if things don’t go to plan with the depot driver role I’m waiting to hear back on, waiting for the email has defo been the worst part of the application since it can literally come at any time

 

[nadiarail]

I did it 4/5hrs ago so it may have changed since then. They wanted us to introduce ourselves and give a little bit of info. If you’re the first as I was, there was no time to think about it. There are also group exercises which were generally fun. I suspect on these they wanted to see you at least take part and offer ideas, not necessarily try and be the leader and talk over/down to others. I am quite extrovert so found most of it ok, although there was also a quick fire “interview’ with each of the 4 managers I think there were to see I presume, how flustered you got under pressure.

Not something you can really practice for, just go in, don’t panic or worry about it and be yourself. I suspect these things will show someone trying to be clever and quickly getting out of their depth. I’ll also suggest, that in the group exercises, there weren’t necessarily right or wrong answers, just reasonable participation.

Thank you! Do you know how many people there on the day and in your group? And how many people they progress?

 

[Unobrow]

Thank you! Do you know how many people there on the day and in your group? And how many people they progress?

I think there was 10 in a group, and maybe 40 in on the day? No idea how many progressed, we found out a while after if you’d passed or not. I can’t remember the exact timeline as I took it, but I think it was initial online tests, OPC 1&2, assessment day then the EMR DMI. It was a while ago in the midst of time lol.

 

[Mustafa]

Has anyone who sat their stage 1 opc last week wednesday or earlier still not received their result?

 

[pally95]

Has anyone heard anything back about the trainee depot driver at Nottingham? I did my arctic shore assessment last Wednesday and have heard nothing.

 

[Twin82]

EMR is terrible at responding to people. I’ve sent 2 emails to 2 different email addresses and heard nothing frim any of them. I did apply to the Euston depot though.

 

[pally95]

EMR is terrible at responding to people. I’ve sent 2 emails to 2 different email addresses and heard nothing frim any of them. I did apply to the Euston depot though.

I don’t mind if they take a while to respond as long as I get one!

 

[flexmade]

Has anyone heard anything back about the trainee depot driver at Nottingham? I did my arctic shore assessment last Wednesday and have heard nothing.

I’ve heard nothing back either, but I’ve seen some people get rejection emails already about an hour after the vacancy closed so hopefully it’s a good sign for us. Should get a reply by the end of the week id assume since all arctic shores results should’ve come in by now to them…

 

[nadiarail]

EMR is terrible at responding to people. I’ve sent 2 emails to 2 different email addresses and heard nothing frim any of them. I did apply to the Euston depot though.

Try sending an email to one of the talent team Twin. Do you have a contact for anyone on it?

 

[flexmade]

Try sending an email to one of the talent team Twin. Do you have a contact for anyone on it?

Would jobs@eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk be an appropriate email since this is the one they email you with when you submit an application

 

[pally95]

I’ve heard nothing back either, but I’ve seen some people get rejection emails already about an hour after the vacancy closed so hopefully it’s a good sign for us. Should get a reply by the end of the week id assume since all arctic shores results should’ve come in by now to them…

I wonder what kind of results they were looking for from the arctic shore assessment. All of mine were the far right circles.

 

[flexmade]

I wonder what kind of results they were looking for from the arctic shore assessment. All of mine were the far right circles.

For me it was 2 on the far right circles and then I only scored 2/4 for the odd and even game was slightly ill while doing it because I just wanted to get my application finished hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me, I think it’s quite stupid how computified games could be the deciding factor if you get past the first stage of the application process

 

[pally95]

For me it was 2 on the far right circles and then I only scored 2/4 for the odd and even game was slightly ill while doing it because I just wanted to get my application finished hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me, I think it’s quite stupid how computified games could be the deciding factor if you get past the first stage of the application process

I know what you mean. Although, I’d rather do assessments like that than interviews! I feel like I’m capable of doing quite well with the assessments having tried a lot of the online resources I’ve found. It’s the interviews that will let me down I think.

 

[flexmade]

I know what you mean. Although, I’d rather do assessments like that than interviews! I feel like I’m capable of doing quite well with the assessments having tried a lot of the online resources I’ve found. It’s the interviews that will let me down I think.

I agree with you tbf I’m not the greatest at interviews as I haven’t been to many since I’m only just finishing college I’ve done some research on this forum for the interview stages which I think should help since from what I’ve seen they ask similar/the same questions to everyone but I’m hoping they get back to me soon with good news.