That kind of describes most of the TOCs to be fair lol!
That's quite an axe to grind!! Is your opinion as an employee (or perhaps an ex-employee)?
That describes the railway as a whole to be honest. I’ve worked for SWR/T and GWR over the past 18 or so years and they’ve both talked the talk on their customer experience side and bigged themselves up as caring employers. Whether they walk the walk is another matter.
As a driver at one of the other GWR East depots, who knows most of the drivers and managers at Paddington, I would encourage the OP to take this comment with a massive pinch of salt.
Sorry to jump on this but GWR is First group run, same as AWC but why does there seem to be no staff issues towards First at GWR compared to Avanti? I genuinely don’t get it. Even with SWR, I rarely hear any issues with First except for staff not being happy at Avanti.
I’ve heard the Ts&Cs at Avanti were a lot more favourable when it was run by Virgin. So that maybe the reason why those at Avanti are less happy
That and the general working environment. Virgin was an almost legendarily accommodating, considerate and forward thinking employer, for the most part, for most people. It’s not easy to have that environment taken away from you.
Hi mate, I have just accepted a job at Paddington GWR trainee driver. I'm over the moon. I currently live south west London and planning how I will get to work. I can get the train in on mid shifts but early and late starts will involved driving in. Is parking available? Where roughly is it? I heard it was a short walk away. I currently have a scooter but debating getting something like a smart car to avoid CC. What do you and your colleagues mostly do?
Evening
The work at Paddington is really quite good, with a mix of intercity and suburban work.Most diagrams aren't too intense, with decent down time. You get to drive 125mph traction from day 1 once you qualify, you'll sign 800s, 165's and 387's plus the 230 battery train. Shifts can start quite early or finish late due to having to taxi to / from North Pole, but there aren't many night shifts. The accommodation is totally appalling and shabby and we need to move somewhere modern as it'll cost millions to do up the grade 1 listed building the messrooms are in. Management come and go, but the current lot are pretty decent. It's probably the most diverse depot in GWR in terms of staff and people get on. First Group will soon lose the franchise and it'll go to GBRail (next year hopefully).
You'll have to pay the CC regardless of what car you have from next year, but you can get to Padd and the car park without going through the charge zone.
Yeah there’s free parking at the Reading training school
Hi Mate I have got a conditional offer from GWR Paddington too, got my medical next week, I have been given a possible start date of Nov 25th, what about yourself
You can't use the priv oyster to travel to and from work. It's only for leisure.
I've had a look to check this and I can't find anything to say you can't, although equally to say you can.
It's only staff who worked there before it started who can use the Elizabeth Line for free. Anyone who joined in the last 5 years would not qualify.
This is nothing to do with free travel. It's a discount on Elizabeth Line travel that was agreed a couple of years ago and isn't reflected in the current staff travel policy. Elizabeth Line supervisors simply add your priv card number to your Oyster Card and that's it. It's renewed every year.
That discount is only for people who lived along the line before MTR took over services, it s not for new starters nor existing staff who move house to MTR station areas.
Around a week or two and it was emailed/posted
