GWR - Trainee Train Driver - Recruitment Discussion

[lennie1]

I have been informed by GWR recruitment that currently, they have no plans to run any further driver training courses for Reading until 2028 (after the Feb ‘27 course)

Anyone like me, hoping to get onto a course next year, might have to wait a while longer.

 

[moshah]

I haven’t heard anything from Oxford depot yet

 

[Pelican82]

As it says 2026/2027 it's written, I'm hoping, like it means FY, rather than CY.

All businesses run in financial year form, so it's Apr 26 - Apr27
I can't guarantee it, but it's most likely to be that the ball will start rolling again in spring

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 09:35 ==

I should have read Lennie's reply before posting mine

 

[lennie1]

Yes unfortunately not in this instance. GWR recruitment were specific that there are no plans to run further courses in 2027. However, they did say that can change, so keep hopeful and positive, but work on the basis that it’ll be 2028.

We have all got this far, some still to complete DMI, so I hope everyone can wait longer, however disappointing it is right now.

Think of the positives… we all won’t have to watch our weight at Christmas!

 

[SmugStarlord]

Yes unfortunately not in this instance. GWR recruitment were specific that there are no plans to run further courses in 2027. However, they did say that can change, so keep hopeful and positive, but work on the basis that it’ll be 2028.

We have all got this far, some still to complete DMI, so I hope everyone can wait longer, however disappointing it is right now.

Think of the positives… we all won’t have to watch our weight at Christmas!

We can all hold out hope that A) the feb course isnt fully filled yet. B) someone drops out, or C) they reopen courses once the initial GBR takeover happens. You never know

 

[lennie1]

Yes, there’s probably some truth in that. There’s a lot to consider, plus UK and global economies are taking a bit of a hit, which will affect public purses. And, GWR are experiencing a bit of train trouble which is probably quite costly to fix too - although I don’t know if that burden of cost falls on GWR or Hitachi, or both.

The truth is, it’s all speculation. It may just be as simple as more people are in the talent pool than expected, so places were filled and less people are retiring than expected, so less spaces to fill.

We probably want GWR to mandate Sunday’s if we want things to speed up. That is likely to produce more retirements and more gaps in the workforce.

 

[SmugStarlord]

Yes, there’s probably some truth in that. There’s a lot to consider, plus UK and global economies are taking a bit of a hit, which will affect public purses. And, GWR are experiencing a bit of train trouble which is probably quite costly to fix too - although I don’t know if that burden of cost falls on GWR or Hitachi, or both.

The truth is, it’s all speculation. It may just be as simple as more people are in the talent pool than expected, so places were filled and less people are retiring than expected, so less spaces to fill.

We probably want GWR to mandate Sunday’s if we want things to speed up. That is likely to produce more retirements and more gaps in the workforce.

That and the government want to hire thousands more train drivers within a certain time frame. I can see GBR making Sundays a working day in the future, however, that all depends on the unions too