Failed PTS

[lehovec]

I have been offered a position with Arriva as a Service Delivery Manager and was sent for PTS medical.
My visual acuity is 6/6 in good eye and 6/36 (uncorrectable). I was under the impression that this would be a pass but with restriction.
During the medical the OH specialist told me I will be fine only to call me an hour later to tell me that I am unfit. I am now awaiting for Arriva to call me and unsure of what to do.
Does anyone know what is the requirement for to be accompanied?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated...
Thank you

 

[Undiscovered]

Is your vision uncorrected (ie would be fine with glasses) or uncorrectable (glasses wouldn't help at all)?

There's a big difference in those statements, the latter would be a fail and the former, for traincrew, is ok. I'm not sure of the standards for On Track, are they stricter?

Have you been given an out right fail or just a fail for now, go to the opticians and come back with glasses?

 

[lehovec]

Is your vision uncorrected (ie would be fine with glasses) or uncorrectable (glasses wouldn't help at all)?

There's a big difference in those statements, the latter would be a fail and the former, for traincrew, is ok. I'm not sure of the standards for On Track, are they stricter?

Have you been given an out right fail or just a fail for now, go to the opticians and come back with glasses?

Right eye is fine, get 6/6 without glasses. Left eye is 6/36, glasses make no difference. I managed to find requirements for train movement roles but cannot find anything for PTS, especially requirements to be accompanied on track.

It was very odd at the medical. She initially said, don't worry, you are fine, passed with limitations, only to call me back an hour later to say I failed out right, no referral to optician.

 

[Stigy]

Right eye is fine, get 6/6 without glasses. Left eye is 6/36, glasses make no difference. I managed to find requirements for train movement roles but cannot find anything for PTS, especially requirements to be accompanied on track.

It was very odd at the medical. She initially said, don't worry, you are fine, passed with limitations, only to call me back an hour later to say I failed out right, no referral to optician.

As far as I’m aware the standard of vision for safety critical work is standard across the board, with an element of discretion. It’s the safety critical aspect that’s important, rather than PTS. PTS is just a competency.

The RSSB published a standard to follow which I did have to hand but it seems one can only access it by logging in now?

 

[baz962]

I believe the key requirement is that you can have bad eyesight, as long as you can correct it with glasses or lenses. If you can't correct your vision , that's probably why you were failed.

 

[CyrusWuff]

The requirement is a minimum of 3/60 in both eyes without correction, then 6/9 in the better eye and 6/12 in the worse eye with correction if required.

 

[PupCuff]

As far as I’m aware the standard of vision for safety critical work is standard across the board, with an element of discretion. It’s the safety critical aspect that’s important, rather than PTS. PTS is just a competency.

The RSSB published a standard to follow which I did have to hand but it seems one can only access it by logging in now?

The way it tends to work is that generally each rail organisation will set a blanket standard within their safety management system for medical requirements for all safety critical workers, though aside from train driving and train movement roles there isn't a specific industry standard, it's left to the dutyholder (ie the employing organisation) to ensure the staff member is fit for whatever safety critical duty they are performing - so for non-train movement/train driving safety critical roles there can sometimes be some 'wiggle room'. Service Delivery Manager sounds like some form of shunter/DP on depot? If so then the industry standard requirements for train movement roles would need to be applied as have been posted above.

As a more general point it's also worth noting that PTS doesn't necessarily equal safety critical, although in many cases depending on the reason they have PTS (by the sound of the job title, including the OP's) it would.

 

[Stigy]

As a more general point it's also worth noting that PTS doesn't necessarily equal safety critical, although in many cases depending on the reason they have PTS (by the sound of the job title, including the OP's) it would.

Agreed, I’m fact I know this from experience. Safety Critical as a is generally defined as a worker with train movement responsibilities or working around the movement of trains (at least always used to). Having PTS doesn’t necessarily equate to this, as you could have a track competency but not have any input or responsibility to the running of trains.

Thanks for the detailed explanation too

 

[Horizon22]

Yes there are plenty of roles that are safety critical that don't require PTS - dispatching, some control roles and some signaller roles (at ROCs).

But it is normally exclusionary the other way - if you can't pass a safety critical medical, you can't pass PTS. I'm not actually sure what the difference between a SC & PTS medical is practically?