route learning

[steve worsnop]

Hello all,

On the route learning phase of commercial guards with SWT is it a monday - friday time frame as with the classroom learning. Reason I'm asking is that I start Commercial Guards training soon and for the school summer holidays I need to find out what sort of hours I'll be working.
Cheers in advance

 

[steve worsnop]

SWR not SWT

 

[dth]

Yes it's Monday to Friday and dependant on depot should be around 4 weeks.

 

[trentside]

When I was route learning with a different TOC I found that they were willing to allow you to come in on Saturdays and take a day off in the week should you need to. So long as I did five days they were happy. This was agreed with my line manager so should you need a weekday off, speak to them to get the ok.

 

[tsr]

When I was route learning with a different TOC I found that they were willing to allow you to come in on Saturdays and take a day off in the week should you need to. So long as I did five days they were happy. This was agreed with my line manager so should you need a weekday off, speak to them to get the ok.

Some TOCs seem to expect you to follow a roster within your full contractual hours (within all 7 days or Monday-Saturday, depending on company), including various early / late booking on times which tie into a set of “preset” route learning schedule cards.

It’s a pretty good system if it all works out, but if you need to hop off at a given station to have a look at something like a platform layout, it can quickly unravel!

 

[Bigfoot]

There may be routes that you need to learn which only run on a weekend.

 

[tsr]

There may be routes that you need to learn which only run on a weekend.

Often this is the case for passenger services, but many diversionary routes see at least one or two empty stock moves through the week.

I know several routes where route learning involves awkward rostered hours which aren't strictly necessary (I seem to remember that many moons ago, there was one point where certain crew learning the main sections of the Brighton Mainline were mandated to book on at 03something, which was totally pointless and a complete hindrance to actually doing any learning). On the other hand, there will always be one or two in each region of the country which are simply impossible to do outside of small-hours services or those running at weekends.