Search results

There's a massive pilot shortage in the US and has been since around 2016 (Covid excepted), a quick read of the 2023 Salary Survey thread on a US-focused pilot forum highlights it well. First Officers were typically reporting $200k-$400k and most Captains $350k-$700k due to bidding for...

I'd like to see ASLEF work with one of the TOCs to produce a documentary that goes into detail about driver training, as opposed to focusing on personalities. I'd like the general public who think we are overpaid to try and understand everything from Absolute Block signalling to traction...

A Train Driver earns about the same headline pay as a Lieutenant Commander and that's before you factor in things like subsidised housing, food and private education for the latter. When you factor in things like working hours, I'd say it balances out fairly evenly, since a naval officer will...

A technical interview is far better than a competency-based one since at least you know that the people you're hiring are clued up as opposed to being good talkers, a sim ride might be good too but if a TOC only has sims in one location and depots at opposite ends of the country it could be...

I think the fairest way of assessing candidates is a very technical interview process with a rules exam and lots of face-to-face technical questions. I'm admittedly a bit biased because it's how I got the qualified driver move to my current TOC. The DfT seem to be very anti-competitive for...

Are the HST Mark 3 coaches compatible with Class 68s or other diesel locotives? TPE have a load of 68s they're not going to be using, I'm thinking running the HST Mark 3 sets with those might be an interim solution until something newer becomes available, like IETs.

That sounds like a far better way of doing things, sticking with the same time of day, than working rotational patterns as is the case with most TOCs. Rotating between early and late shifts can take years off people's lives, no doubt great for companies which sell annuities but not so great...

XC is now one year to full pay. Sundays are committed outside and surprisingly easy to get rid of since they're the worst paid day of the RDW week. There's booking on/off payments if you're booking on before 5am or finishing after 2am. The XC depots I'm familiar with offer a choice between...

The most important question of all, do TPE give you free onboard tea and coffee on tap?

This is the sort of data ASLEF should display on their Company Information pages open to members, yet most of the time Company Information is hopelessly out of date.

Take the offer that's in front of you, once you've done three years qualified you can think about other options if needs be.

From what I can see the unions are very much the primary target with staff second. To run 40% of the usual service I reckon the train companies would need around 50% of the staff who work on any given day. I don't see that sacking so many people would work, unless the government are determined...

I didn't pay much attention to it but now you've pointed it out, I wonder what the cause of the dip was in 2018-2020, more trainees? It makes very little sense and at best must have involved some serious statistical gymnastics. From what I read he wasn't a driver (an "anonymous railway...

How come only SE? If you're sitting on an offer you might as well take it, however if you're just applying, consider the following: SWR at Waterloo pay you £20k more, rest day working is paid at a far better rate and you'll have a second member of staff onboard. GTR Thameslink at...

I've got a Telegraph sub since some of their economics articles are fairly decent. I posted a comment on the article under a pseudonym refuting a few of the popular myths and it was fairly well received to be honest. Once the reality of the myths are busted the public seem to be more...

I was recently told about a case where a rail company which operated a yard were forced to close it due to noise following the construction of a residential property development next door. When a property company were selling plots on an estate near another of the rail company's yards, a bright...

Driver Advisory System, basically where we have slack in the timetable we can run at a lower speed and save fuel as opposed to running at linespeed and being checked down at signals. At the moment, the trains I drive are so busy that any slack in the timetable is usually taken up by getting...

The trains I'm driving are more often than not absolutely rammed with passengers and the company I work for is more of a leisure than commuter operator. Dwell times are often three or four minutes and as a result I'm at full power or line speed most of the time even though I sign DAS.

The MMI is quite a tough interview, when I did it back in 2015 it was par for the course for the interviewer to interrupt quite a bit and part of the test was to not get irked or rattled by it. The railway likes people with life experience, whenever I was asked about an emergency situation I...

I was a driver instructor prior to moving TOC and if any drivers there had been sacked for refusing to cross a picket line I'd have handed my instructor ticket back. I suspect most other instructors would do the same. No new trainees until everyone sacked has their jobs back.