Hi there, I’ve always wanted to work on/around the railways, but been somewhat limited by being colour blind. I’ve been looking at various opportunities, and the idea of timetable planner quite struck me. It seems to be fairly flexible as well as most FoCs/ToCs and NR all employ planners. I’d be interested to know what timetable planners actually do day-to-day? I’m aware they create long-term TTs, but what is done in the time between those? Thanks everyone
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Job as a Timetable Planner
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I can only speak from experience of being a planner within a TOC.
Personally I work on the long term plans. When I'm in between preparing each of the base timetables I tend to either be looking at future possibilities and creating train plans which won't run but are proof of concept for potential future projects or I'll get diverted onto a short term plan to ease pressure on the short term team.
Short term planners adapt the base timetables to suit individual scenarios on the network like engineering work or expected increased demand.
Most TOCs also have specialist train crew diagrammers as that element of the train plan has the most rules which need to be followed as they are being put together.
Personally I work on the long term plans. When I'm in between preparing each of the base timetables I tend to either be looking at future possibilities and creating train plans which won't run but are proof of concept for potential future projects or I'll get diverted onto a short term plan to ease pressure on the short term team.
Short term planners adapt the base timetables to suit individual scenarios on the network like engineering work or expected increased demand.
Most TOCs also have specialist train crew diagrammers as that element of the train plan has the most rules which need to be followed as they are being put together.
Depends what skill-set you have. For instance there are roles in resourcing and rostering too. Also not all staff in control roles are safety-critcal. Then there's project work, learning and development, franchise (or whatever the contract team will be now) and all the other support functions.
306024
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Perhaps surprisingly, as a rough guide, somewhere around 30% of timetable planning is concerned with the long term timetable, while 70% is spent altering it for bank holidays, engineering work and special events.
But there is so such more than simply planning a timetable, such as unit diagramming, crew diagramming, rostering and engineering access planning, both for short and long term planning.
To quote an old boss, the key requirement is “meticulous attention to detail”. Ability to work accurately to demanding timescales, and to work in a team environment are essential too.
If you can cope with that it is a wonderfully rewarding career. Standing on a platform watching what you have planned actually operate is immensely satisfying.
But there is so such more than simply planning a timetable, such as unit diagramming, crew diagramming, rostering and engineering access planning, both for short and long term planning.
To quote an old boss, the key requirement is “meticulous attention to detail”. Ability to work accurately to demanding timescales, and to work in a team environment are essential too.
If you can cope with that it is a wonderfully rewarding career. Standing on a platform watching what you have planned actually operate is immensely satisfying.
I always think the pay is poor for timetable planners. In my TOC an experienced planner is on about 34k. It's even worse in NR at Milton Keynes.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Also most planners are desperate to get off STP work as soon as possible which often leaves very inexperienced teams with understandable issues with the quality and accuracy of output.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Also most planners are desperate to get off STP work as soon as possible which often leaves very inexperienced teams with understandable issues with the quality and accuracy of output.
Surreytraveller
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That's right. If the planning doesn't work, nothing else works. The plan has to be correct in the first instance
There have been several threads about train planning in the past (it may pay to make a Google search using the limiter "site:railforums.co.uk" as the forum search function isn't great).
But in brief - long term planners work on the base, i.e. LTP, schedules which then get amended as required on a weekly basis by the short term planners.
In principle these schedules only change twice a year, in May and December - but even during "normal" times, timetables do sometimes change part way through these periods to accommodate long term engineering works, stations opening/closing, leaf fall alterations, summer extras etc. And in the last 2.5 years most TOCs have done something like 10-20 timetable changes (some even more than that), so clearly the workload has been much higher than usual.
It's also worth noting that there are several stages to implementing each biannual timetable, from initial conception through various working stages, a bid, an offer, and then any post-offer changes. These processes stretch over a period of many months or even years, and so you will often be working in parallel on a May and a December timetable (possibly even further ahead than that for a total rewrite, as is currently 'on hold' for the ECML).
At various times, LTP planners may also assist STP planners to cover for holiday/sickness or a particularly busy week/period. They may also devise a timetable that the STP planners can bid, if there's a particularly disruptive piece of engineering work that will be repeating for several weeks. And there is also conceptual work, which explores the possibility of changes to future timetables based on "what if" questions the DfT/funding agency might pose.
Each TOC does things slightly differently in terms of the roles that timetable planners have - whether people are multi-skilled and write traincrew diagrams as well as creating and revising schedules, or whether they're just specialised in one discipline. There are also differences in the way that e.g. large networks are split up (e.g. regional vs long distance, west vs east).
It's not the best paid career in the world and obviously current pay freeze imposed by the government is not helping with that, but it's one of those 'niches' where if you enjoy it, you could easily spend your whole career there.
But in brief - long term planners work on the base, i.e. LTP, schedules which then get amended as required on a weekly basis by the short term planners.
In principle these schedules only change twice a year, in May and December - but even during "normal" times, timetables do sometimes change part way through these periods to accommodate long term engineering works, stations opening/closing, leaf fall alterations, summer extras etc. And in the last 2.5 years most TOCs have done something like 10-20 timetable changes (some even more than that), so clearly the workload has been much higher than usual.
It's also worth noting that there are several stages to implementing each biannual timetable, from initial conception through various working stages, a bid, an offer, and then any post-offer changes. These processes stretch over a period of many months or even years, and so you will often be working in parallel on a May and a December timetable (possibly even further ahead than that for a total rewrite, as is currently 'on hold' for the ECML).
At various times, LTP planners may also assist STP planners to cover for holiday/sickness or a particularly busy week/period. They may also devise a timetable that the STP planners can bid, if there's a particularly disruptive piece of engineering work that will be repeating for several weeks. And there is also conceptual work, which explores the possibility of changes to future timetables based on "what if" questions the DfT/funding agency might pose.
Each TOC does things slightly differently in terms of the roles that timetable planners have - whether people are multi-skilled and write traincrew diagrams as well as creating and revising schedules, or whether they're just specialised in one discipline. There are also differences in the way that e.g. large networks are split up (e.g. regional vs long distance, west vs east).
It's not the best paid career in the world and obviously current pay freeze imposed by the government is not helping with that, but it's one of those 'niches' where if you enjoy it, you could easily spend your whole career there.
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