Scotrail Trainee Drivers (Ongoing)

[RiverDon]

Hi there, just wanted to ask about the working hours if any exisiting drivers from Glasgow depots could shed some insight.

What's the typical working pattern like in terms of working hours and shift patterns?
i.e. week 1, 2 and so forth.

Are there also any scheduled/mandatory breaks?

Thanks

That sort of stuff is pretty much standard across every depot apart from the tiny rural ones. The rest day pattern is

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Week 1	Rest day	Rest Day	Working	Working	Working	Working
Week 2	Working	Working	Rest Day	Rest Day	Working	Working
Week 3	Working	Working	Working	Working	Rest Day	Rest Day

And it just repeats, so you get a full long weekend off every third week. On the other hand if you do Sundays you'll end up working seven days in a row too, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Shifts can be earlies, mids, lates and some depots also do nights. Early shifts can start very early in the morning and late shifts can finish very early the following morning. The weekly hours average out to 36 hours but rostered shifts can be between 7.5 hours and 10 hours. The longest week you can be rostered without doing overtime is 39 hours. If you start your shift between 22:00 and 04:59 then the longest job can be rostered is 8.5 hours. If you are rostered spare (to work 'as required') your times can be moved up to 3 hours each way, up to 12:00 the previous day - so for example you could be shown on the weekly roster to start at 07:00 for a spare shift then look at the daily update list at lunchtime the day before and find out that you've been changed to an 04:00 start instead.

Sundays are outwith the working week and you get an additional payment for any shift which starts on a Sunday (although the actual hours are paid at standard rate). You can make yourself not available for Sundays if you prefer but you will be required to work it anyway if they can find someone else willing to work it. The various depots and links within each depot will differ in how often a 'booked' Sunday comes round. Of course there is also the opportunity to make yourself available to work extra Sundays if they are struggling for cover or lots of people have made themselves unavailable.

The length and timing of breaks depend on shift length, the rules are pretty complicated but I have been told you need to be on top of them because sometimes supervisors will ask you to do things that aren't strictly allowed.

 

[redspider1380]

Received talent bank email today. Don’t see the point of being strung along for almost 2 years then get a talent bank email. Seems pointless really frustrating recruitment process. Assessed for a job that doesn’t exist yet and they are still advertising for new trainee roles. Has anyone received this previously and actually got a job?

Can I ask if you went through the whole process and pass it then you were put in the talent bank?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 May 2026 ==

Thank you for this! Seems I was winding myself up for nothing

a year on and likely an update within this thread…but wondered how your eye test went in the medical. I’m due in next week but like you winding myself up thinking I’m going to fail. What type of prescription do you have? I’ve emailed optima but they are keeping their cards close to their chest!

 

[mikeccccccc]

That sort of stuff is pretty much standard across every depot apart from the tiny rural ones. The rest day pattern is

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Week 1	Rest day	Rest Day	Working	Working	Working	Working
Week 2	Working	Working	Rest Day	Rest Day	Working	Working
Week 3	Working	Working	Working	Working	Rest Day	Rest Day

And it just repeats, so you get a full long weekend off every third week. On the other hand if you do Sundays you'll end up working seven days in a row too, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Shifts can be earlies, mids, lates and some depots also do nights. Early shifts can start very early in the morning and late shifts can finish very early the following morning. The weekly hours average out to 36 hours but rostered shifts can be between 7.5 hours and 10 hours. The longest week you can be rostered without doing overtime is 39 hours. If you start your shift between 22:00 and 04:59 then the longest job can be rostered is 8.5 hours. If you are rostered spare (to work 'as required') your times can be moved up to 3 hours each way, up to 12:00 the previous day - so for example you could be shown on the weekly roster to start at 07:00 for a spare shift then look at the daily update list at lunchtime the day before and find out that you've been changed to an 04:00 start instead.

Sundays are outwith the working week and you get an additional payment for any shift which starts on a Sunday (although the actual hours are paid at standard rate). You can make yourself not available for Sundays if you prefer but you will be required to work it anyway if they can find someone else willing to work it. The various depots and links within each depot will differ in how often a 'booked' Sunday comes round. Of course there is also the opportunity to make yourself available to work extra Sundays if they are struggling for cover or lots of people have made themselves unavailable.

The length and timing of breaks depend on shift length, the rules are pretty complicated but I have been told you need to be on top of them because sometimes supervisors will ask you to do things that aren't strictly allowed.

Thank you for the detailed break down.

When you mention earlies, mids, and lates would you be able to elaborate on the start-finish times?
- and would these start times be grouped together in one given week I.e. week 1 would all be "earlies" etc.

R.e. depots that do nights would you know which ones or is it just a case of whichever depot you're assigned to within Glasgow?

Tia

 

[scottgl]

Can I ask if you went through the whole process and pass it then you were put in the talent bank?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 May 2026 ==


a year on and likely an update within this thread…but wondered how your eye test went in the medical. I’m due in next week but like you winding myself up thinking I’m going to fail. What type of prescription do you have? I’ve emailed optima but they are keeping their cards close to their chest!

When did you apply, are you part of the March 2024 application?

 

[ChernoSamba]

Could anyone in the talent pool for Glasgow or surrounding areas drop me a DM please? Cheers.

 

[Glasgowhopeful]

Could anyone in the talent pool for Glasgow or surrounding areas drop me a DM please? Cheers.

I’m currently in same situation, no idea how to DM on this forum though?

 

[ChernoSamba]

I’m currently in same situation, no idea how to DM on this forum though?

Sent you a DM

 

[RiverDon]

Thank you for the detailed break down.

When you mention earlies, mids, and lates would you be able to elaborate on the start-finish times?
- and would these start times be grouped together in one given week I.e. week 1 would all be "earlies" etc.

R.e. depots that do nights would you know which ones or is it just a case of whichever depot you're assigned to within Glasgow?

Tia

Start and finish times can be anything really but yeah the shifts are generally grouped together in a week of earlies, a week of lates, a week of earlies, a week of lates etc... with mids and nights as and when. It all depends on how many drivers at your depot or in your link as to how often nights and mids come round.

A typical early week might be:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
04:02 - 12:12 (8h10m)	04:33 - 13:01 (8h28m)	Rest Day	Rest Day	05:35 - 15:29 (9h 54m)	03:47 - 12:05 (8h18m)

Just to expand on spare shifts, you don't have a booked job for that shift but they are planned with a start and finish time (usually for 9 hours). If you are needed to cover a shift these times can be changed to match the shift times either on the roster when it is sent out on a Thursday or up to 12:00 on the day before through an alterations sheet that is published every day. Hopefully that makes sense! If you are spare and you're not assigned a shift beforehand, you come in at the booked time and sit in the bothy to be used as required in case someone goes sick or there's service disruption or whatever. If you are given something to do by the supervisor on the day then I believe they can't make you stay on past your booked spare finish time but I'm not 100% on that.

If you're used to a pretty fixed shift pattern and start times like I was in the police then it takes a bit of getting used to. On the plus side in my experience so far it's quite rare to still be at work past your booked finish time.

Nightshift at my depot involves shunting trains around, taking them to the yard and back and getting everything in the right position for the morning, so it's nothing too strenuous. I could be wrong but I don't think there's anywhere in Scotland where they actually run a train service all night? Where I am there's only a couple of drivers on per night and there are folk who prefer it for whatever reason, so it doesn't come round very often and it's easy to swap if you don't fancy it. I'm based in the north so I really don't know much about the Glasgow depots but I think Queen Street does nights, not sure about Central, Corkerhill, Yoker etc... Sorry, hopefully someone based round there can help with that!

 

[redspider1380]

Thanks, that's good to know!

@Ducaticam have you heard anything yet?

 

[Ducaticam]

@Ducaticam have you heard anything yet?

Other than the ' you've been put into a talent bank, you'll be e-mailed every 6 months" no I've not heard a thing, what about yourself?

 

[rd83]

Wow, so you have been left waiting for a year now after passing all the tests. You will be happy that it has finally come to a start date. Best of luck with the training pal.

Yeah! Aye just glad the wait is almost over! Thanks!

 

[roadwarrior8]

I passed my dmi in March and had an email stating they would be in touch with the next steps shortly but haven’t heard a thing since, is anyone else in the same boat? Thanks

 

[scottgl]

I passed my dmi in March and had an email stating they would be in touch with the next steps shortly but haven’t heard a thing since, is anyone else in the same boat? Thanks

Passed mine 6 months ago today, waiting for the 6 monthly email...

Nevermind, read that as MMI, not DMI

 

[afloattoast]

I passed my dmi in March and had an email stating they would be in touch with the next steps shortly but haven’t heard a thing since, is anyone else in the same boat? Thanks

Which depot? Some depots have folk who’ve passed everything and now been put into a talent bank. When did you first apply?

 

[scottgl]

Which depot? Some depots have folk who’ve passed everything and now been put into a talent bank. When did you first apply?

Yeah I got put in the talent bank

Waiting for Glasgow Central, applied for the March 2024 application

I sat my MMI and got the email to say I passed on December 1st and that was the last part of the process for myself so I think I should get the 6 month talent bank update email this week..

 

[vinoboxer]

Are Scotrail likely to have any vacancies soon? Or, gauging on the amount of people still on reserve lists, will it be a while?

 

[Mihigo26]

Are Scotrail likely to have any vacancies soon? Or, gauging on the amount of people still on reserve lists, will it be a while?

They recently opened applications for the talent bank a month or two ago. Probably be a while now I'd have thought.

With that said, has anyone who passed the online tests for those heard anything more yet?

 

[chris89]

Did myself just get a email with practise material and being told arranging dates and times etc. For Edinburgh

 

[Mihigo26]

Did myself just get a email with practise material and being told arranging dates and times etc. For Edinburgh

Weirdly as did I. Spooky!

 

[roadwarrior8]

Which depot? Some depots have folk who’ve passed everything and now been put into a talent bank. When did you first apply?

Bathgate depot, October last year it was a speculative application.

 

[DennyDriver]

Also got the Waverley email.

Interesting it says if you applied for multiple depots your application has only being considered for Waverley. Of course that’s the furthest one for me haha

 

[JJ10]

Has anyone received their assessment centre date?

 

[RailRxz]

Has anyone received their assessment centre date?

Yes - I got an e-mail today and confirmed my slot.

Question regarding the assessment for those who have done it recently - the email states that included on the day will be Group Bourdon, Tea-Occ and Rules and Procedures (TRP) but the information pack attached lists more on top of this such as test of vigilance etc. Am I right to practice the types stated in the e-mail alone or should I be preparing for the others listed in the info pack?

Would the e-mail specify if MMI would be done on this day?

Trying to prepare as much as possible.

 

[chris89]

Has anyone received their assessment centre date?

Not yet, just got to wait and see.

Yes - I got an e-mail today and confirmed my slot.

Question regarding the assessment for those who have done it recently - the email states that included on the day will be Group Bourdon, Tea-Occ and Rules and Procedures (TRP) but the information pack attached lists more on top of this such as test of vigilance etc. Am I right to practice the types stated in the e-mail alone or should I be preparing for the others listed in the info pack?

Would the e-mail specify if MMI would be done on this day?

Trying to prepare as much as possible.

Im going by the tests it mentions. One thing confused by as mentions the Group Bourdon test but the example tests it gives seems more similar to the SCAAT test and not the dot test for group bourdon.

 

[CarineNoctua]

Yes - I got an e-mail today and confirmed my slot.

Question regarding the assessment for those who have done it recently - the email states that included on the day will be Group Bourdon, Tea-Occ and Rules and Procedures (TRP) but the information pack attached lists more on top of this such as test of vigilance etc. Am I right to practice the types stated in the e-mail alone or should I be preparing for the others listed in the info pack?

Would the e-mail specify if MMI would be done on this day?

Trying to prepare as much as possible.

You get the full booklet but you’ll only be doing the tests mentioned in the email. The computerised tests and MMI will come after.

 

[redspider1380]

You can buy a book off Amazon for the group bourdon if you want to practice that in depth. Don’t think about the day 2 tests at all.
Also the other tests in another book - worth the investment in my opinion.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk

 

[RiverDon]

Yes - I got an e-mail today and confirmed my slot.

Question regarding the assessment for those who have done it recently - the email states that included on the day will be Group Bourdon, Tea-Occ and Rules and Procedures (TRP) but the information pack attached lists more on top of this such as test of vigilance etc. Am I right to practice the types stated in the e-mail alone or should I be preparing for the others listed in the info pack?

Would the e-mail specify if MMI would be done on this day?

Trying to prepare as much as possible.

You'll do two separate assessment days, the first one is just the paper based tests (GB, Tea-Occ, TRP1 & TRP2). If you pass that you'll be invited back to a second day to do the computer based tests in a much smaller group. They used to also do the MMI in the afternoon as part of that day but last year they changed to doing it in another session at a later date too. Being well prepared is definitely the key to success.

One tip is remember to bring something that confirms your name and national insurance number to every assessment day!

 

[DennyDriver]

Yes - I got an e-mail today and confirmed my slot.

Question regarding the assessment for those who have done it recently - the email states that included on the day will be Group Bourdon, Tea-Occ and Rules and Procedures (TRP) but the information pack attached lists more on top of this such as test of vigilance etc. Am I right to practice the types stated in the e-mail alone or should I be preparing for the others listed in the info pack?

Would the e-mail specify if MMI would be done on this day?

Trying to prepare as much as possible.

When is your date? Not had anything to book yet

 

[RailRxz]

When is your date? Not had anything to book yet

Wednesday 10th of June. Maybe they are only contacting a few folk at a time?

 

[DennyDriver]

Wednesday 10th of June. Maybe they are only contacting a few folk at a time?

Good luck!