London Underground - CSA1 / CSA2 - Recruitment and Discussion

[bluegoblin7]

Just curious, did you get allocated a big station to start in like Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Euston etc or is it a smaller station? I'm just curious as to where I'll be starting off, I'm guessing it will be a busy mainline station.

It will generally be a Zone 1/2 'Gateway' station, or Heathrow, but not exclusively so. The waiting lists for a lot of the smaller 'choice' stations can be years long. But - the busier the station the better for newbies, imo. You'll learn the ropes very quickly and it'll set you up very well if you do want to go on to other areas of LUL in due course.

When I joined LU (10 years ago this week!) I was given King's Cross, and it was some of the most interesting and useful experience of my career. I certainly wouldn't have moved into Service Control, nor become a senior TU rep, without it, and I still relate back to some scenarios and situations now.

As I said to someone in a PM earlier this week: lots of stations have reputations, good or bad, or may seem to be a 'bad' choice at first glance. But they are all exactly what you make of them, and if you really don't like it then you can nominate somewhere else - but the grass isn't always greener.

 

[asn.15_]

Good luck with the job and hope you enjoy it, I can't wait for the day I finally get my training dates and I'm able to hand in my notice at my current job.

Just curious, did you get allocated a big station to start in like Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Euston etc or is it a smaller station? I'm just curious as to where I'll be starting off, I'm guessing it will be a busy mainline station.

You will be put where the business needs are the most needed.

Its true. They do try accommodate your location however, it is based on business needs. My first allocation was an hour away from me, however, I did manage to swap with someone, so now my allocation is only half hour journey

 

[ac2552]

Was last told March / April time but now starting to doubt that. I’ve emailed recently asking, waiting for a reply but it seems as if someone is going to ring them which will likely be quicker!

I received an email back and they’ve let me know the estimate is late spring. I am early August

 

[newCSA2]

I received an email back and they’ve let me know the estimate is late spring. I am early August

Great news for you, I'm early September so hopefully not too long after you. I've spoken to Onboarding a couple of times since my conditional - first I was told it was going to be in the new year (before the cyber incident) and then I was told it could be Spring at the earliest.

I don't really want to keep calling the team as I don't want to appear desperate, I had my mind set on an April start a few months ago but not I've told myself it will be August. If I get a call out the blue telling me it's earlier then that is a bonus for me.

On a side note, I can't wait to start my career with TFL - I've worked a few jobs in my life but I've never had this feeling of excitement and anticipation for a job before. Even if I'm stuck in a Zone 6 open platform station in -10 degrees cold I'll be happy as Larry. I just want to get stuck in and work my backside off.

 

[ac2552]

Great news for you, I'm early September so hopefully not too long after you. I've spoken to Onboarding a couple of times since my conditional - first I was told it was going to be in the new year (before the cyber incident) and then I was told it could be Spring at the earliest.

I don't really want to keep calling the team as I don't want to appear desperate, I had my mind set on an April start a few months ago but not I've told myself it will be August. If I get a call out the blue telling me it's earlier then that is a bonus for me.

On a side note, I can't wait to start my career with TFL - I've worked a few jobs in my life but I've never had this feeling of excitement and anticipation for a job before. Even if I'm stuck in a Zone 6 open platform station in -10 degrees cold I'll be happy as Larry. I just want to get stuck in and work my backside off.

I have the same sentiment as you! Very excited to get in the door regardless of where I work!

 

[Mubz]

Hi guys, I've been offered my CSA2 role in September, completed my Reed screening and medical by November, but I still haven't received my start date. Every time I call, I'm told there's a backlog of people waiting—those who received their offers in June or July are ahead of me. It's now coming up to 5 months since I received my offer. Should I be concerned?

 

[ac2552]

Hi guys, I've been offered my CSA2 role in September, completed my Reed screening and medical by November, but I still haven't received my start date. Every time I call, I'm told there's a backlog of people waiting—those who received their offers in June or July are ahead of me. It's now coming up to 5 months since I received my offer. Should I be concerned?

No, as has been stated on this thread, it is a high volume candidacy.

I was given the job in August and wrote above not to expect a start date until POSSIBLY late spring.

 

[Mubz]

Full time by the way

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jan 2025 ==

No, as has been stated on this thread, it is a high volume candidacy.

I was given the job in August and wrote above not to expect a start date until POSSIBLY late spring.

I see, I’ll just have to wait patiently until then.

 

[heretohelp]

Full time by the way

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jan 2025 ==


I see, I’ll just have to wait patiently until then.

I applied in June 2021 and got through to the final interview and passed in December 2021 I didn’t start until July 2022, it’s a really long wait but the saying goes “good things come to those who wait” you’ll get there in the end. Unfortunately you have to be very patient and just carry on like you’ve never applied for it

 

[Sterlingldn]

Hi guys, I've been offered my CSA2 role in September, completed my Reed screening and medical by November, but I still haven't received my start date. Every time I call, I'm told there's a backlog of people waiting—those who received their offers in June or July are ahead of me. It's now coming up to 5 months since I received my offer. Should I be concerned?

I got my offer ending august, I thought I would’ve started by now. But realistically I’m not getting training dates till summer, there’s a big backlog

 

[newCSA2]

Hi guys, I've been offered my CSA2 role in September, completed my Reed screening and medical by November, but I still haven't received my start date. Every time I call, I'm told there's a backlog of people waiting—those who received their offers in June or July are ahead of me. It's now coming up to 5 months since I received my offer. Should I be concerned?

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you with the dates and conditional date, been told the same dates as you. The process as far as I can see from previous years and reading this thread is that our training dates could be up to a year from when we applied until we start.

I believe the people who had conditional offers in June have just started training and are starting the job so that's about a 6 or 7 month wait - I'm a September offer so on that timeframe I'm expecting an April or May start. Sadly due to the Cyber attack TFL suffered a few months ago I'm guessing that impacted the process and delayed training for people so perhaps we may be later than Late Spring.

Like people said, it's just part of the waiting game and we just have to hold tight. Hopefully we can get a start date in a few months and crack on with our careers, we'll probably start the same time so good luck!

 

[tanks88]

I was wondering how does one manage the annual leaves while working as CSA2 full time role .
1) Do you get a choice of when you can book them .
2) how many weeks of annual leave is allowed to book at one go ?

Thanks

 

[heretohelp]

I was wondering how does one manage the annual leaves while working as CSA2 full time role .
1) Do you get a choice of when you can book them .
2) how many weeks of annual leave is allowed to book at one go ?

Thanks

The first year of employment is the only year you’re allowed to book holiday as it was “previously booked” you must let onboarding know in email the exact weeks (book no more than 6-7 weeks)

Then when you eventually start your group make sure you email the coverage team and your area manager with these exact dates.

They will be honoured for this year and this year only, after that you’ll be put on a specific period and you’ll be able to swap with colleagues that want your dates.

 

[tanks88]

The first year of employment is the only year you’re allowed to book holiday as it was “previously booked” you must let onboarding know in email the exact weeks (book no more than 6-7 weeks)

Then when you eventually start your group make sure you email the coverage team and your area manager with these exact dates.

They will be honoured for this year and this year only, after that you’ll be put on a specific period and you’ll be able to swap with colleagues that want your dates.

Thank you . That's very helpful.

 

[Sterlingldn]

Hold on so after 12 months you can’t book regular days off, you have them allocated? So if you can’t swap with anyone you can’t get it off even if it’s important?

 

[heretohelp]

Hold on so after 12 months you can’t book regular days off, you have them allocated? So if you can’t swap with anyone you can’t get it off even if it’s important?

Yeah you can’t book days off that you want, it honestly depends on the area you’re assigned to. Some are more lenient than others!

If you have an amazing area manager and an amazing coverage team/CSM’s combined they can sometimes honour your requests but you have to remember the service has to run so you have to do what is required with regards to annual leave

Unfortunately because of the lack of having a choice for annual leave alot of our colleagues end up “booking off” in other words (calling in sick or not turning up) or saying that they have a domestic (which is unpaid)

It’s the nature of the beast I’m afraid, you genuinely sell part of your life away in a sacrifice for a phenomenal salary and all the benefits that come with it.

Let’s be honest, 10 weeks annual leave is not to be sniffed at. But fingers crossed you’ll always be able to swap shifts using the power app’s feature MCO in advance and changing with your colleagues mutually and signed off by your CSM’s in order for you to get needed time with family for events and weddings etc. a lot of CSM’s will use their discretion to get you the time off. Just remember to always work hard, never be late and be 100% reliable.

If you are, you will be at the top of the list - it’s always worked for me and I’ve always got what I’ve wanted when it comes to needing a specific day off thankfully.

 

[bluegoblin7]

Hold on so after 12 months you can’t book regular days off, you have them allocated? So if you can’t swap with anyone you can’t get it off even if it’s important?

This is standard for pretty much all operational railway jobs - I'm actually quite surprised that you seem to be surprised by this. Don't you think the railway would come to a halt if it was a free-for-all?

@heretohelp has covered the basics, although I would tread very carefully with the line around booking off sick or using a domestic for a leave day. These will, very quickly, start to turn into an open and close attendance at work case, and you really don't want to be getting into that. I will also add that, technically, calling in sick when you are not sick is fraud. If you are found out (it does happen) you can pretty much guarantee a one-way trip to a Company Disciplinary Interview for gross misconduct.

In ten years, however, I've always been able to get days off that I need, be it through swaps, favours or unpaid leave. Granted things are a little different within Service Control, but not especially so. I've certainly had days that I would have liked be declined, but it all comes down to where your priorities lie.

Railway jobs are a way of life, and there's a reason the salaries are what they are. If you're expecting the same work-life balance as a 9-5 this really, really isn't the job for you.

 

[Mawkie]

Hold on so after 12 months you can’t book regular days off, you have them allocated? So if you can’t swap with anyone you can’t get it off even if it’s important?

It's very common in transport to have allocated annual leave. I'm not on stations, but if I recall correctly there are 10 weeks allocated and 3 days left spare to use as and when. The attached forms (for 2024) explains it better.

So if you're in "Period 1, then you can see all the leave you have been allocated for 24/25.

At the bottom you can see 1-3-4-2-5, this is the rotation. So if you're Period 1 this year, you're Period 3 next year, and so on. This way it rotates in a way that is fair for everyone - no single person gets every Xmas off, or every school summer holiday.

I attach the full document for completeness.

Just as a side note to what's been added above about sickness, LU take sickness very seriously and they publish an Attendance at Work Policy which managers follow. This policy also allows for patterns of absence to be addressed. So if you happen to get sick every time it's your birthday, it will be picked up; if you're sick every time Ramadan comes around, likewise, etc.

I would say it's easier to swap leave periods with staff on larger stations, and agree with @bluegoblin7, the general holiday package on stations is generous, and it's fairly easy to work your life around it. (Don't forget there are also long 4 day weekends included in most rosters). It's not that much of an issue most of the time.

 

[Random673]

@heretohelp @bluegoblin7 @Mawkie thank you all for your continued input and advice on this thread. it has been greatly appreciated. also thank you for clearing this up regarding the annual leave allocation as i wasn’t too sure how it worked. I haven’t organised any pre-arranged leave with onboarding so i believe i will be put straight on an allocated leave pattern, which i’m quite excited about!

One question about the file attached by @Mawkie - will those allotted periods be in effect indefinitely or do they change every few years? if so, how often do they change? i’m assuming this is an updated one that was put in place last year

also, last question sorry haha, but what does BRDs mean on the document?

 

[bluegoblin7]

The periods are broadly the same every year, but obviously the exact dates will shift slightly. The actual rotation itself doesn’t change, though, so unless you swap blocks you can get an idea. Leave rotation is usually published around October/November for the following year.

BRD is Banked Rest Day. On LUL most grades are rostered to work slightly more than their contractual hours, which add up over the year to allow you to accrue additional rest days. In most cases these are incorporated into rosters (be that station or leave), but in most grades there will be one or two odd days available to take ad-hoc.

However, these BRDs are not contractual, and sickness or unpaid leave etc. will result in their accrual changing. For most people this won’t cause any issues, but if you’re long-term sick you can often lose out on a few extra days.

It is worth keeping track of BRDs specifically as they could change in light of the above towards the end of a leave year, and technically you can’t do rest day working on a BRD, but ultimately they’re nothing special and will become just another day off.

Another point worth clarifying again: this is all obviously stations-centric, given the thread. All of these work slightly differently on trains and in service control, so this advice won’t translate perfectly to those areas.

 

[Random673]

The periods are broadly the same every year, but obviously the exact dates will shift slightly. The actual rotation itself doesn’t change, though, so unless you swap blocks you can get an idea. Leave rotation is usually published around October/November for the following year.

BRD is Banked Rest Day. On LUL most grades are rostered to work slightly more than their contractual hours, which add up over the year to allow you to accrue additional rest days. In most cases these are incorporated into rosters (be that station or leave), but in most grades there will be one or two odd days available to take ad-hoc.

However, these BRDs are not contractual, and sickness or unpaid leave etc. will result in their accrual changing. For most people this won’t cause any issues, but if you’re long-term sick you can often lose out on a few extra days.

It is worth keeping track of BRDs specifically as they could change in light of the above towards the end of a leave year, and technically you can’t do rest day working on a BRD, but ultimately they’re nothing special and will become just another day off.

Another point worth clarifying again: this is all obviously stations-centric, given the thread. All of these work slightly differently on trains and in service control, so this advice won’t translate perfectly to those areas.

thank you for clarifying! so i guess you can basically predict when you are going to have leave each year indefinitely, give-or-take a few days

 

[Mawkie]

thank you for clarifying! so i guess you can basically predict when you are going to have leave each year indefinitely, give-or-take a few days

Precisely! With the caveat, that your leave period changes as you move around the network, be that a same-grade move to a different station, or a change of grade, perhaps to Train Op for example (where you also lose the majority of your banked rest days and end up with 8 weeks leave and a few miscellaneous days.)

 

[bluegoblin7]

Worth saying that where you move or change grade after the year’s leave is published, effort will be made to honour anything you have booked, as with new starters.

 

[tanks88]

Any prebooked holidays agreed for starters. Would they be paid ? Say for example, a new starter joins in February but has prebooked 3 weeks of holiday in may , would that be then paid holiday?

 

[Horizon22]

thank you for clarifying! so i guess you can basically predict when you are going to have leave each year indefinitely, give-or-take a few days

Correct. Pretty similar systems worked for train crew as well in both TOC and LU world, simply because it is obvious people will want to take leave in July but not necessarily February and the service needs to be maintained and a constant level.

Rostered Annual Leave does of course have some benefits as well as negatives; being able to easily plan and booked in advance can save you money. And people will often want to swap (e.g. those with young / school age children and those without) which will be beneficial both ways.

 

[bluegoblin7]

Any prebooked holidays agreed for starters. Would they be paid ? Say for example, a new starter joins in February but has prebooked 3 weeks of holiday in may , would that be then paid holiday?

Yes, it would be paid annual leave and come out of your allocation for the year. Starting in February should give you the full leave quota, but obviously it may be suitably pro-rated.

If you require more holiday than you have dates available then any additional overage would be unpaid.

 

[tanks88]

Yes, it would be paid annual leave and come out of your allocation for the year. Starting in February should give you the full leave quota, but obviously it may be suitably pro-rated.

If you require more holiday than you have dates available then any additional overage would be unpaid.

Thank you! Seems like fair system .

 

[Sterlingldn]

This is standard for pretty much all operational railway jobs - I'm actually quite surprised that you seem to be surprised by this. Don't you think the railway would come to a halt if it was a free-for-all?

@heretohelp has covered the basics, although I would tread very carefully with the line around booking off sick or using a domestic for a leave day. These will, very quickly, start to turn into an open and close attendance at work case, and you really don't want to be getting into that. I will also add that, technically, calling in sick when you are not sick is fraud. If you are found out (it does happen) you can pretty much guarantee a one-way trip to a Company Disciplinary Interview for gross misconduct.

In ten years, however, I've always been able to get days off that I need, be it through swaps, favours or unpaid leave. Granted things are a little different within Service Control, but not especially so. I've certainly had days that I would have liked be declined, but it all comes down to where your priorities lie.

Railway jobs are a way of life, and there's a reason the salaries are what they are. If you're expecting the same work-life balance as a 9-5 this really, really isn't the job for you.

I understand what you’re saying but that could be said for all businesses. That’s why I assumed you could book you’re holidays on a first come first serve basis obviously if it suits the business needs. Thanks for the info

 

[advocate24]

Thanks for the help so far.

That being said I’m curious as to what the rules are around part time. I’ve applied for full time CSA 2 and understand that training is 9-5 hrs.
Eventually once fully trained up and a few months in can I make the transition to part time working at all?
Many thanks in advance

 

[Neatro]

Thanks for the help so far.

That being said I’m curious as to what the rules are around part time. I’ve applied for full time CSA 2 and understand that training is 9-5 hrs.
Eventually once fully trained up and a few months in can I make the transition to part time working at all?
Many thanks in advance

I know nothing about LU, but why did you apply for a full time roll if you want part time within a few months?

In general I can't see any company being pleased with a fresh starter wanting to transition so quickly to part time/flexible working.