Bus Driver or Train Driver

[bezzer]

"Driving a bus is arguably more challenging than driving a train (given the added pressures of the road, other traffic, and having passengers to deal with), so you might be surprised to learn that bus drivers earn half of what train drivers take home. The average UK salary for bus and coach drivers is just £22,701 - compared to £44,617 for tram and train drivers." (A story from Yahoo!!)


What rubbish. 2 weeks to get your bus license. 10 months to get a train driver's license. So train driver's don't deal with passengers, don't get delayed, don't have a rule book three times as fat as the Highway Code, don't have to know every square inch of their routes and over 200 stations.

Go figure

 

[Stuart-h]

well said.

 

[Silv1983]

From what little energy I have expended on this recurring matter: the same comments from fatuous outsiders seems to be "you don't even have to steer". Indeed, I hear the term "you don't even have to steer" when people learn what I do for a living. I always retort: "do you find steering exceptionally challenging then? do you think every time you make a turn in your car you're deserving of massive respect?" The usual blank look and frown follows and a "Well then" from me

 

[anthony263]

I think if I had a choice I would choose a job as a train driver since I have done the bus driving part as it is very mentally demanding especially with the idiots on the roads these days.

Certainly another reason why is that train drivers get the right amount for the tough jobs that they do while bus drivers get less than we deserve certainly £25,000 should be the minimum a bus driver should earn.

 

[youngboy]

Said this before and I will say it again, IMO.. Train Driver's are paid the correct salary for their job and that's because they have a good strong union and have negotiated well deserved pay rises over the last few years. The rest of us are underpaid, how long the union can stay strong depends on it's member's and the quality/backbone of people currently being taken on.

 

[RJ]

It's like comparing apples with oranges. It's such a pointless discussion that I don't even see the point in attempting to articulate the differences between the roles.

As a bus driver, I am more than satisfied with what I am paid and the T&Cs. I do it because I love doing it, no other reason. Train driving is something different which has no vocational appeal to me and the salary rates do nothing at all to change that.

As for who deserves more money, it's not so much about being a worthy recipient as it is about having the ability to negotiate wages upwards. The railways tend to have generous salaries when viewing them in conjunction with comparable roles in other industries, as mentioned because of the unions and the solidarity of those who support their movements. At the end of the day, transportation is the lifeblood of the economy and it would take a brave (or obstinately inept) person to take the unions on, as the costs would far outweigh the benefits of getting rid of favourable T&Cs by force or by stealth. The inelasticity of rail travel gives the workers a bargaining tool and they have their act together enough to use that to preserve their conditions. The bus industry doesn't and striking can bankrupt their employers, with far less disasterous consequences than that of a rail strike.

The buses have different factors that push wages up - see labour poach wars between the bus operators in Oxford and BMW. Plus they have been known to negotiate by force in times of heightened power - such as in London for the Olympics.

That said, if £25k was the salary offered for driving trains, I suspect there still wouldn't be any shortage of capable applicants. It would just mean a whole heap of potentials would have to find some other job where full training is offered for a higher salary, of which there aren't many.

 

[notadriver]

As someone who does both jobs (tour coaches not buses) I could comment but I really can't be that bothered suffice to say bus drivers do deserve more than they get. The problem quite frankly is that it's too easy to obtain a pcv licence.

What I don't understand is why so few bus drivers make the transition to train driving. One would expect it to be a natural progression and that at least 75%+ of train drivers would be ex bus drivers but this doesn't seem to be the case. The proportion of conductors/guards who drove buses or lorries is a lot higher though. Can anyone explain this ?

 

[WestRiding]

£44000 for driving a tram! wish i never left supertram now!

 

[Dieseldriver]

Anyone who tells me 'driving a train is easy' is told,
A) How long it takes to stop them,
B) Type 'Ladbroke Grove' into google...

 

[notadriver]

£44000 for driving a tram! wish i never left supertram now!

What they've done is (wrongly) combined train and tram drivers together when comparing pay. Tram drivers were usually grouped with buses which to me makes more sense as their type of work, pay, terms and conditions are very similar to bus drivers. Would I be right in saying that with its magnetic brakes a tram has similar braking performance to a bus too?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Anyone who tells me 'driving a train is easy' is told,
A) How long it takes to stop them,
B) Type 'Ladbroke Grove' into google...

I agree with you mate but with ERTMS around the corner I wonder what will become of the job.

 

[Stuart-h]

i'm a truck diver - I wish I was a lot more! Ive got bored with all the regs that have come out. The cpc.

 

[notadriver]

i'm a truck diver - I wish I was a lot more! Ive got bored with all the regs that have come out. The cpc.

What do you want to be ? The Cpc was a pain but I managed to get it done in time and it wasnt something you could fail anyway.

PS : tanker drivers can earn the same as train drivers with overtime can't they ?

 

[Stuart-h]

Ive been trying to get a job on the railways. Tanker drivers are on something like £42,000 a year. Don't hold me to it though!

 

[plarailfan]

In some ways you can't really compare the two jobs. Train drivers DO have a very challenging job indeed, but in a different way to buses, for instance, some bus routes between towns and cities in my local area cover a distance of twenty miles. These routes continually intertwine and criss-cross one another, a right pain in the neck as you need to make sure you are following the route your'e supposed to be on, correctly at all times !
Accident / crash scams are on the increase, with the latest variation being to be "flashed" by a car driver at a busy junction, only to find he then collides with you (at low speed) and the driver and his three passengers all suffering from severe whiplash injuries !!
I would imagine some bus drivers in, say, Devon and Cornwall, for instance where it is more rural will face other challenges, such as fast moving traffic on narrow country lanes, etc.
It's ten years since I've driven buses and I wouldn't go back to it now, it's way underpaid for the stress you have to take !!

 

[A-driver]

I agree with you mate but with ERTMS around the corner I wonder what will become of the job.

For a start I doubt many of us will still be working when/if the entire uk is converted so drivers for the foreseeable future will still need the same training they have now regarding signalling plus they will need extra training on ERTMS.

Secondly ERTMS certainly won't put an end to training or even reduce it by any noticeable amount. You will still need to know everything you do now but applied to a different signalling system. ERTMS can still go wrong in the way fixed signals can fail and when it does procedures are in place to get things moving. And it won't end any of the other things train drivers need to know about or be trained in so I doubt it will have that much effect.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Bus driving has so many transferrable skills from car driving that it is very easy for companies to keep wages down. It doesn't take almost a year from a bloke walking through the door for the first time to driving his first bus in service which is why bus companies are happier to ride roughshod over their staff.

Quite what this has to do with train drivers is beyond me. Some people always feel the need to drag others down to their level (or in this case, salary) and I really don't understand why.

 

[Beveridges]

What rubbish. 2 weeks to get your bus license. 10 months to get a train driver's license.

So train driver's don't deal with passengers, don't get delayed, don't have a rule book three times as fat as the Highway Code, don't have to know every square inch of their routes and over 200 stations.

Go figure

10 months to get a lisence and then any additional training you need learning new routes, depots and traction; it can amount to well over a year.

Pay in jobs is normally in line with the amount of training you need before you can do it. A Bus drivers training takes slightly less time than a station train despatcher. The pay is about that as well.
If Bus Drivers dont like it theres nothing stopping them leaving the bus industry and joining the railway.

 

[JAMBO]

Pay in jobs is normally in line with the amount of training you need before you can do it? What is that meant to mean, so the longer the training the better pay you get in your eyes?

 

[carlejo]

Only comment I'd like to make is that the train driver role is safety critical isn't it.
If something goes wrong on a train, it's a huge mistake as we've all seen recently

 

[Beveridges]

More or less, yes

 

[Bishopstone]

Only comment I'd like to make is that the train driver role is safety critical isn't it.
If something goes wrong on a train, it's a huge mistake as we've all seen recently

Bus driving is also safety critical, and the probability of being involved in an incident is far higher.

 

[carlejo]

yes, but if a bus has a crash not many people die or get injured.......

if a train has a crash...........

 

[TOCDriver]

yes, but if a bus has a crash not many people die or get injured.......

if a train has a crash...........

But then again, a modern day train has excellent safety systems that minimises the event of a catastrophic incident

 

[RJ]

Bus driving has so many transferrable skills from car driving that it is very easy for companies to keep wages down. It doesn't take almost a year from a bloke walking through the door for the first time to driving his first bus in service which is why bus companies are happier to ride roughshod over their staff.

Quite what this has to do with train drivers is beyond me. Some people always feel the need to drag others down to their level (or in this case, salary) and I really don't understand why.

Drag others down to their level? This is absolute diatribe - train drivers work hard, performing a role that needs doing in order to earn an honest and respectable living, like so many other people in the country. Earning 40-60k does not make anyone the pinnacle of high society and I certainly don't think they should be looking down on people who earn a few hundred pounds less a month.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Drag others down to their level?

(or in this case, salary)

 

[SWTH]

What I don't understand is why so few bus drivers make the transition to train driving. One would expect it to be a natural progression and that at least 75%+ of train drivers would be ex bus drivers but this doesn't seem to be the case. The proportion of conductors/guards who drove buses or lorries is a lot higher though. Can anyone explain this ?

In my case it certainly isn't for a lack of trying for either driving or conducting posts, and that includes prior experience of working in a rail industry environment. I do think that PSV drivers do have a serious issue with public perception though, we are considered to be somewhere between traffic wardens and suicide bombers on the social scale. The abuse we deal with on a daily basis seems to be considered acceptable to the general public. I suspect this spills over into HR departments, and where they see 'bus driver' on a CV they automatically file the application in the bin.

I would certainly say train drivers earn their money, but I would say PSV drivers are (except in large cities) woefully underpaid. My average working week is around 65-70hrs (55-60hrs paid) to bring in around £22k. No sick pay, a zero hours contract, no pension, and driving machines that are having safety devices removed to save cash. For the responsibility it's bloody pathetic, and even more infuriating, going the extra mile and making the effort is just not considered worthy of merit or recognition.

 

[TDK]

I would sooner drive a train than a bus. In my opinion it is far less demanding and far less likely you will have an accident. Train driving is safety critical and needs a lot more training but the physical side of the job Bus driving is far more taxing than driving a train, as for salary, it is what it is and to be fair I feel Bus drivers should be paid a lot more than they currently get.

 

[WestRiding]

If bus drivers feel they should be paid more, take it up with the union or apply for a job on the railway. Pointless conversation, the two roles are not comparable. It is easier to stop a bus in the rain, than it is to stop a 3000 ton oil train, or even a crappy little 142. Take note drivers, a signalman fighting your corner.

 

[TOCDriver]

I would sooner drive a train than a bus. In my opinion it is far less demanding and far less likely you will have an accident. Train driving is safety critical and needs a lot more training but the physical side of the job Bus driving is far more taxing than driving a train, as for salary, it is what it is and to be fair I feel Bus drivers should be paid a lot more than they currently get.

Spot on with everything there

 

[notadriver]

If bus drivers feel they should be paid more, take it up with the union or apply for a job on the railway. Pointless conversation, the two roles are not comparable. It is easier to stop a bus in the rain, than it is to stop a 3000 ton oil train, or even a crappy little 142. Take note drivers, a signalman fighting your corner.

Thank you Kimflop.