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I haven't worked for Northern so have no idea about their contracts etc, but across the industry very few if any other companies will take on drivers as qualified who are still within their 2 year PQA status.

DB Cargo have one at Didcot TMD, although I haven't used it. One thing to note, a large part of route knowledge especially for freight trains is knowing where the gradients are on you route. I doubt a simulator can make this realistic.

Probably going to Dagenham to act as a shunter there. Ford still send out a few car trains each day to Mossend and Garston.

Sundays are part of the working week on the East side. No idea what the shift patterns are like but earliest trains off Heaton in the morning are 05.15 which is empty to Middlesbrough and first service train is the Newcastle - Chathill. Think the last train back on a night-time used to be from...

In some cases it may be tha case that there isn't a guard on the inbound working, and therefore it couldn't pick up passengers. Also some ECS movements are tightly timed so would not have time to stop at stations.

That is the case at Paddington, start on Thames Valley lines and then go to HSS.

Days Aggregates also takes in a weekly train of bottom ash from the Energy from Waste plant at Newhaven on the south coast, which is used to manufacture breeze blocks and used in other construction materials. If they do want a passenger service they'll need to spend money on the track at the...

All comes down to money at the end of the day. If a wagon is red carded, then you would need a wagon fitter or similar to attend in a van, and that is assuming the fault is repairable without having to jack it up or use a crane to lift it.

Think the term that has been used in the past is 'managed decline'. Nexus didn't do enough work on upgrading the system 10 years ago and were busy exploring other things (Project Orpheus, battle over the buses etc.), and neglected the system. Lo and behold the infrastructure and rolling stock...

Travelling to Balham from Ealing Broadway using the Central line to Shepherd's Bush and then Overground/Southern via Clapham Junction - how is this charged using Oyster? On the Single Fare Finder it comes up with £2.60 in the peak but I am not entirely sure if I have been charged for a single...

DB also started a group of qualified drivers yesterday who are doing conversion courses to freight. So in effect depends on how many more TOC etc. drivers want to make the move across, and how many shunters/groundstaff go onto the Junior Driver roles in the next few months. Might be a while...

I have heard the same rumour about GBRf, but as you say if they decided to do so then you would probably get a lot of drivers jumping ship pretty quickly. DB have a pension deficit but I haven't heard if they are planning on coming out of the RPS final salary scheme yet. All three major FOCs...

GWR are advertising and have been for some time but only for qualified drivers at the minute for LTV services.

Depends on which companies you are talking about. DB have just created a new role of Junior Driver for internal applicants only, which will probably lead onto full driving duties.

Roads are going to be chaos as well. Looks like nothing has been gritted in West London.

The allocation of cars to enter service is done around 2-3am so no-one knows what train will run which service until then, plus it can change very quickly if a train that has s fault isn't fixed in time or a driver gets on a train in the morning to prep it and it develops a fault.

+1 to that, although I have a 0309 start tomorrow. However, no more passengers to deal with. 3000 tonnes of sand doesn't do much talking back.

Yes same reason, South Hylton is similar as also has speed magnets on the approach but only the one signal protecting the platform. South Shields is a bit of an oddity as there are no speed magnets on the approach to the platform - there is a longish overrun to the signal that allows access to...

Control and fleet don't like running single cars as for most faults it is game over if one fails. When it is a two car set, the other car is able to provide all the air and traction power to at least get the train to the next station or into a siding.

Don't think the overrun tunnels were specificallly built with Moorgate in mind, more the fact that you can get 2x 2 car sets in thr platforms. The signalling system is set up as you say in regards to Moorgate, and will stop a train travelling at too high a speed into the platform (however it is...