How often do Merseyrail recruit?

[JH9]

Hi All,

I have had a search on here but can't seem to see much regarding Merseyrail recruitment. I was just wondering if anyone knew the last time they recruited trainee drivers and/or if they tend to just recruit internally?

Any opinions on the T&Cs or working for the TOC in general are also welcome.

 

[rhys37429]

they have always recruited internally for trainee drivers for as long as i can remember.

 

[JH9]

Ah I suspected that may have been the case since there aren't many threads on here haha thanks for the reply!

Do you know if they run external campaigns for qualified drivers?

 

[L401CJF]

Generally trainee driver positions are only open to their guards as internal vacancies. Speaking to a Merseyrail driver a few months ago and they said there was talk of an external recruitment drive in the future ready for the 777 introduction. Presumably a number of the older drivers and guards might retire with the old stock?

Only word of mouth, so could mean nothing but thought it worth mentioning

 

[JH9]

Generally trainee driver positions are only open to their guards as internal vacancies. Speaking to a Merseyrail driver a few months ago and they said there was talk of an external recruitment drive in the future ready for the 777 introduction. Presumably a number of the older drivers and guards might retire with the old stock?

Only word of mouth, so could mean nothing but thought it worth mentioning

Thanks for the info, as you say could just be rumour but a change of rolling stock would be the perfect time to recruit, so perhaps there may be some truth behind it I do think they are introducing the 777s soon, as they have started to receive them at the depots, so hopefully something comes up soon

 

[LowLevel]

I think unlike elsewhere guards on Merseyrail are formally in the driver's line of promotion - am I dreaming this or do they/did they have a sort of guard acting up as driver hybrid role for those waiting for a space in the links? Elsewhere it is a theoretically sidewise (in practice a significant promotion particularly financially nowadays at most TOCs) move from another department (where I am guards are "customer services", drivers are "operations").

 

[C J Snarzell]

Evening

From job hunting myself a while back across the railway industry, Merseyrail jobs in general are quite thin on the ground. They do advertise on the Abellio careers site, but it is very rare you get more than two jobs being advertised at once and then it could be weeks with zero vacancies on there.

As they are one of the smallest TOCs in the country, it stands to reason that there won't be as many vacancies being advertised for Merseyrail in comparison to say Avanti or Northern.

Merseyrail did advertise for Station Assistants on their careers page late last year which involved contacting their HR for details. This was a bit unusual because most Abellio jobs involve completing an application on the Abellio careers portal.

I believe Merseyrail also advertise roles in the Liverpool Echo which might not necessarily be accessible via the Internet - it means buying a LE newspaper!!!!

Good luck with your search - I would just keep regularly checking their careers page for anything cropping up. You never know - that dream job may be added online tomorrow!!!!

CJ

 

[JH9]

@C J Snarzell @LowLevel

Thanks for the reply guys! I did have the suspicion it would be quite a hard one to crack. As you say, good to just keep an eye out and hope for the best

 

[rail-god]

Do you know if they run external campaigns for qualified drivers?

NEVER!!!

They did advertise for fixed term trainee guards a few years. During the stike.

Closed shop.

 

[jamesst]

Driver jobs are recruited from the guards grade only and normally with a waiting list from that grade.

 

[DM1994]

Yeah they only promote to drivers internally.

They did a big assessment drive about 2 years ago, they said all permanent guards could go for psychometrics, no interviews and if successful go into a pool for driving. The idea was to promote all permanent guards and let the fixed term guards go and go DOO.

Instead they then agreed to keep guards after strikes and now they have a waiting list of internal guards waiting to train to drive. Still no agreement in place for method of working.

 

[LCC106]

Have you seen the new thread about EMR recruiting for their new Liverpool depot?

 

[JH9]

Have you seen the new thread about EMR recruiting for their new Liverpool depot?

Indeed, a bit of good timing