Driving debate : Train vs Coach

[notadriver]

Having just got off the phone with a coach driver who I'll be going abroad with as his second driver soon his comments were interesting. 'You don't 'drive' trains - you merely sit in an air conditioned cab and watch the signals. You know what's about to happen next and you don't have to react to cars or people in your path like proper drivers do'.

Any comments welcomed

 

[Johnny_w]

In the simpliest form he's probably right. Not unlike flying a plane. It's all fairly simply until something goes wrong!

Also in the most simplest and pure ideology a train driver doesn't have to deal with other idiots in conjunction with the actual job of driving; unlike the coach driver who has to deal with everyone who managed to obtain a licence (often from mothercare it seems).

But his commentary sounds rather bitter and jaded though. Which is a shame.

 

[Phil.]

Stand by for incoming. "I have to know rules/routes/responsibility/et al....".

The actual driving of a train involves controlling it in one dimension - speed.
A coach driver controls in two dimensions - speed and direction.
An aircraft driver controls in three dimensions - speed, direction and height.

 

[PermitToTravel]

Also in the most simplest and pure ideology a train driver doesn't have to deal with other idiots in conjunction with the actual job of driving;

Not on the big railway, but I was really very amused the other day to see a tram driver gesticulating at another who he felt cut him up at a junction

 

[Bill EWS]

A stupid argument, all jobs such as these have their own difficulties and moments when you have to be fully in control. As a secondman, way back in the early 70's I remember we had two airline pilot friends of the driver with us in the cab of a Western Loco on an express between Didcot and Paddington and it was in the dark, early in the morning. Both said that they prefered to be flying their planes than on that locomotive. each to their own, as the saying goes. Just respect each other for the different professions we work for.

 

[notadriver]

Is it worth me arranging a cab ride for him so he can see what really goes on ? When I suggested it he said 'fill your boots'.


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