I failed at two hand coordination stage last time and well aware of how quick they close job adverts.
I had a saved job alert with DB and got an email this morning about the vacancy. Started it ASAP hence my annoyance. I Don’t see it as fair that I had an online application in process. You should be given the chance to complete it. Hopefully email I have sent will help.
It's definitely frustrating, for sure. I had a year where somehow every trainee train driver job I applied for, the position had closed by the time I'd finished the paperwork. I started saving my answers to questions so I could copy and paste the responses into subsequent applications.
It's frustrating, but I imagine they have a threshold number of applications they are willing to sift through, and they have to cut that off on what they receive, not how many start it. I hope you can get your application considered though