Depot to Mainline only in the future?

Ludus · 22 Aug 2026

Greater Anglia have recently changed their driver recruitment process so that all trainee drivers will start as a depot driver and then have apply for a mainline role internally. Do we think this could possibly be the case for all TOCs in the future?

Does anyone know the rational behind the decision (other than obviously gaining traction experience prior to mainline) and do you know if you move from depot to mainline whether you have to retake all the psychometrics? If so that does seem a little unfair.

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Magrar · 22 Aug 2026

It would certainly be an effective and cost efficient method of ensuring people not fit for mainline duties for whatever reason (but which only came to light once they were feeling comfortable in the job) aren't entitled to redundancy or a disciplinary process.

Believe it or not, there are people out there who will be on their best behaviour and do an upstanding job, right up to the day they hit full entitlements. Which under recent working rights changes, can now often be long before they are actually put in a position of real responsibility. Not that driving in a depot is nothing. But it's behind closed doors.

But I'd wager that's not the official reason given.

Error404 · 22 Aug 2026

- Employee will be productive much quicker (several weeks vs several months)
- It is cheaper to give an employee a few weeks training course, then get employee doing part of a job.
- The employer can see what the employee is like before offering full promotion.
- The employee must prove worth in probation (and a lower wage) before going up a step.
- The incident rate is much higher for a post qualified driver of less than two years. A comparison based argument could be made that a 5mph incident with no public on board vs a 70mph incident with several hundread public on board.
- There will be a level of dedication required to be in the depot for a few years before. This is very common in Flight, (First officer upto Captain), Water (First mate upto Captain) and within Health (Junior Doctor upto Consultant)

PudseyBearHST · 22 Aug 2026

Bring back the secondman grade I say <:D

tiptoptaff · 23 Aug 2026

They always used to do this on the GE side, then moved away from it.

So looks like they're back to it

172007 · 23 Aug 2026

Struggling to work this out. How many depot drivers do Anglia actually have? Would there be enough turnover of depot drivers a year to fill mainline drivers vacancies.

Ludus · 23 Aug 2026

172007 said:
Struggling to work this out. How many depot drivers do Anglia actually have? Would there be enough turnover of depot drivers a year to fill mainline drivers vacancies.

Well the depot drivers will fill the mainline vacancies internally so in theory there would still be the same amount of vacancies.

scotraildriver · 23 Aug 2026

That would never work here at Scotrail. We're taking 160 new drivers a year for the foreseeable future. There aren't enough depot posts for that.

Tonboles365 · 23 Aug 2026

All relevant points. I think this is a good direction to move in, personally, as it puts you in a position of responsibility and gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your worth, commitment, and most if your ability to operate matches everything you said in your interviews.

My other view point of this, is that it gives the opportunity to gain relevant railway experience, become much more acquainted with the traction 'on the job' and understand other operational areas. Following that, if someone can demonstrate the safety first mindset, can be reliable, and can be a vital part of a cog to ensure that trains are checked, prepped, and leave the depot on time to contribute to the efficient running of a service, then I can certainly imagine a promotion to mainline driver will certainly feel more rewarding. Considering back in BR days there was no 'direct-to-driver' route, you had to earn your keep and progress through grades following a strict lines of promotion, it ensured a healthy well-rounded knowledge of all aspect of the job. But, we live in modern times, there is no cleaner or fireman role anymore, there is an aging driver force who are coming toward the end of their career - with many I know having taken early retirement - so perhaps depot the mainline is the best modern equivalent.

Ludus · 23 Aug 2026

Didn't think about the ageing driver force - this could be a good alternative to holding pools if TOCs need a large number of drivers in the future. If you do all your training and start depot driving you can then switch mainline almost immediately following route learning, that way they can get people filling vacancies with minimal downtime.

martin2345uk · Monday at 10:17

Not quite the same as not trainees but we (E*) have all driver start off as depot/ferry drivers for anything from 6 months to a year before going on to learn French rules.

tiptoptaff · Monday at 10:23

GWR have started doing it in locations where they have depot drivers.

But as I said upthread, Great Eastern/One/NXEA/GA did it this way for years on the GE side of things.

Lmc1976 · Monday at 15:35

tiptoptaff said:
GWR have started doing it in locations where they have depot drivers.

But as I said upthread, Great Eastern/One/NXEA/GA did it this way for years on the GE side of things.

GWR slightly different in that you don’t have to go depot first it’s a choice at application stage as they are advertised seperately.

Also GWR depot drivers are guaranteed the next available mainline vacancy at their depot after completing 2 years service, no need to apply to move on.

Ludus · Monday at 16:00

Lmc1976 said:
GWR slightly different in that you don’t have to go depot first it’s a choice at application stage as they are advertised seperately.

Also GWR depot drivers are guaranteed the next available mainline vacancy at their depot after completing 2 years service, no need to apply to move on.

Do you they have to retake the assessment centre?

Sorcerer · Monday at 16:04

Although depot driving might not be the part of the job everyone looks forward to, it would actually be quite nice to have a more clearly defined path towards becoming a main line driver at least. Whether Great British Railways opts to make this standard practice or depot/region specific is anyone's guess.

PP57601 · Monday at 16:24

Error404 said:
- Employee will be productive much quicker (several weeks vs several months)
- It is cheaper to give an employee a few weeks training course, then get employee doing part of a job.
- The employer can see what the employee is like before offering full promotion.
- The employee must prove worth in probation (and a lower wage) before going up a step.
- The incident rate is much higher for a post qualified driver of less than two years. A comparison based argument could be made that a 5mph incident with no public on board vs a 70mph incident with several hundread public on board.
- There will be a level of dedication required to be in the depot for a few years before. This is very common in Flight, (First officer upto Captain), Water (First mate upto Captain) and within Health (Junior Doctor upto Consultant)

Where do you get the ‘several weeks’ statement from?

A Depot Driver for GWR still has around 8months training before being fully qualified.

Lmc1976 · Monday at 16:32

Ludus said:
Do you they have to retake the assessment centre?

No. It’s a full drivers licence. You do a mainline conversion course which is essentially a rules refresh and then handling hours with route learning.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Monday at 16:36 ==

PP57601 said:
Where do you get the ‘several weeks’ statement from?

A Depot Driver for GWR still has around 8months training before being fully qualified.

Your absolutely right it’s a full drivers licence and the course is exactly the same as mainline, you just get through it quicker at the end as your handling is condensed into depot work which is much quicker than mainline so you tend to pass out after about 8/9 months.

Tonboles365 · Monday at 19:03

Lmc1976 said:
No. It’s a full drivers licence. You do a mainline conversion course which is essentially a rules refresh and then handling hours with route learning.

This is actually an interesting point, which I would also be curious to find out if they are doing the same at GA. Imagine being a depot driver for 5 years, your psychometric results now being out-of-date, and to become a mainline driver, you have to re-do it. I've completed mine, while it was an experience, it's not an experience I want to have to endure again.

Ludus · Monday at 19:34

Tonboles365 said:
This is actually an interesting point, which I would also be curious to find out if they are doing the same at GA. Imagine being a depot driver for 5 years, your psychometric results now being out-of-date, and to become a mainline driver, you have to re-do it. I've completed mine, while it was an experience, it's not an experience I want to have to endure again.

Exactly, whilst I've also past psychometrics, I'd be fuming at the prospect of having to do them all over again.
If it's the case of simply gaining experience depot driving and then naturally progressing to mainline after x amount of time/experience and without having to go through the whole process again, then I could be onboard with the idea.

Depot to Mainline only in the future?

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