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ARRIVA Rail London - New Cross Gate

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Vacuumfriends

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Thought I’d set up a thread for any questions that anyone has for the ladies and gents that already work at the New Cross Gate depot. I know have some.

Is there a railway turntable on the East London Line? Someone told me there is, but I can’t find any reference to it anywhere.
 
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bionic

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I understand the work is just ELL core to Clapham, New Cross, Crystal Palace and Croydon. There is only one traction type and there isn't much variety in the work. There are also loads of weekends and night tube. However... ARL have been poaching some SE drivers (allegedly!) and a number have moved across. I can see the appeal of more money and a set train length (stop shorts with different formations are a major cause of drivers having safety incidents on SE), plus the managers can't be any worse.

What are the earliest and latest book off times? And what is the average diagram work content like? Do you book on at the depot itself and get walking time, or is there remote booking on/off? How often do nights come around?

Its definitely an appealing choice for SE metro drivers. Certainly a step up in every way.
 

Vacuumfriends

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15 Jan 2016
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I understand the work is just ELL core to Clapham, New Cross, Crystal Palace and Croydon. There is only one traction type and there isn't much variety in the work. There are also loads of weekends and night tube. However... ARL have been poaching some SE drivers (allegedly!) and a number have moved across. I can see the appeal of more money and a set train length (stop shorts with different formations are a major cause of drivers having safety incidents on SE), plus the managers can't be any worse.

What are the earliest and latest book off times? And what is the average diagram work content like? Do you book on at the depot itself and get walking time, or is there remote booking on/off? How often do nights come around?

Its definitely an appealing choice for SE metro drivers. Certainly a step up in every way.


I know some answers to your q’s.
Earliest start is 04:15 and latest finish 01:30

No turn longer than 9 hrs, average I think is 8:15 (I think).

Nights are in their own link!

Book on at the depot itself and yes there is walking time.
 

baz962

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8 Jun 2017
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I understand the work is just ELL core to Clapham, New Cross, Crystal Palace and Croydon. There is only one traction type and there isn't much variety in the work. There are also loads of weekends and night tube. However... ARL have been poaching some SE drivers (allegedly!) and a number have moved across. I can see the appeal of more money and a set train length (stop shorts with different formations are a major cause of drivers having safety incidents on SE), plus the managers can't be any worse.

What are the earliest and latest book off times? And what is the average diagram work content like? Do you book on at the depot itself and get walking time, or is there remote booking on/off? How often do nights come around?

Its definitely an appealing choice for SE metro drivers. Certainly a step up in every way.
Seperate night link for arl.
 

Skoodle

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26 Apr 2010
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Is there a railway turntable on the East London Line? Someone told me there is, but I can’t find any reference to it anywhere.
The only "turntable" would be in the Maintenance shed at NXG depot, small one just for a single bogie to be taken out of the shed. There isn't even a semblance of one anywhere else on the route.

Do you book on at the depot itself and get walking time, or is there remote booking on/off?
No remote booking on in normal circumstances. There is a "severe weather" stipulation we have, you can call up from NXG station to book on if there's inclement weather. (Have to walk up to depot). Once you book on, there's walking time in diagrams back to NXG Station, to Silwood Sidings or cab from outside depot to Clapham Junction. There is a 10 minute booking off allowance. There is also a 20 minute overtime allowance if you need to return to depot to hand in a report/RT3185.

As others have said, night work is on the Night Link only, unless you're doing RDW. Everyone else still works late shifts, just not in passenger service between 0100-0500.
People say the route is intense, but if you look at it with a certain frame of mind, it is what it is. I'd rather be doing this route, than running on greens at 125mph for 40 minutes, I think I would find that more boring!

We're well looked after in terms of if our train is faulty. Control want us out of the way as quickly as possible and Bombardier do most of the work for us. If there is a problem, 80% of the time we'll detrain and run ECS back to depot. It is rare for us as drivers to have to isolate anything or carry out fault finding whilst out and about.

Once you take in to account being able to handle extreme changes in gradients on the core route and acknowledging the fact that you will be running on restrictives with a more conservative drive style set by the company, we actually have it pretty good at NXG depot compared to other TOCs.
 

bionic

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Joined
8 Nov 2013
Messages
883
The only "turntable" would be in the Maintenance shed at NXG depot, small one just for a single bogie to be taken out of the shed. There isn't even a semblance of one anywhere else on the route.


No remote booking on in normal circumstances. There is a "severe weather" stipulation we have, you can call up from NXG station to book on if there's inclement weather. (Have to walk up to depot). Once you book on, there's walking time in diagrams back to NXG Station, to Silwood Sidings or cab from outside depot to Clapham Junction. There is a 10 minute booking off allowance. There is also a 20 minute overtime allowance if you need to return to depot to hand in a report/RT3185.

As others have said, night work is on the Night Link only, unless you're doing RDW. Everyone else still works late shifts, just not in passenger service between 0100-0500.
People say the route is intense, but if you look at it with a certain frame of mind, it is what it is. I'd rather be doing this route, than running on greens at 125mph for 40 minutes, I think I would find that more boring!

We're well looked after in terms of if our train is faulty. Control want us out of the way as quickly as possible and Bombardier do most of the work for us. If there is a problem, 80% of the time we'll detrain and run ECS back to depot. It is rare for us as drivers to have to isolate anything or carry out fault finding whilst out and about.

Once you take in to account being able to handle extreme changes in gradients on the core route and acknowledging the fact that you will be running on restrictives with a more conservative drive style set by the company, we actually have it pretty good at NXG depot compared to other TOCs.

That's good information. Many thanks.
 

Vacuumfriends

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15 Jan 2016
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I can’t understand the negativity towards ARL and NXG. It seems better in every way to my current TOC apart from the limited routes.

Whenever I speak about it at work, drivers put it down massively. We’ve had drivers leave for what was then LOROL, only to come back shortly after.

I think most, base their opinions on that and the fact that there’s a high turnover of drivers at NXG
 
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