• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Greater Anglia or C2C mainline driver?

Status
Not open for further replies.

consolegamer

Member
Joined
11 Dec 2018
Messages
7
I'm looking to become a mainline driver in Southend, has anyone worked for either or both of these companies? If so, how do they compare in terms of pay, conditions etc.

Additionally, C2C appear to recruit mainline drivers internally from their shunters. Does anyone know how long the waiting list usually is and whether the pay goes straight to the full driver's salary once qualified?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Teddyward

Member
Joined
3 Oct 2017
Messages
473
Location
Thurrock
At GA you will start as a depot driver at Southend.
29k training 30k qualified. Sundays outside. You have to apply internally to go mainline as it is no longer progressive. Might take 3-5 years depending on vacancies.
Fraid I don’t know how c2c operate.
 

Lewis H

Member
Joined
11 Dec 2018
Messages
146
Apply for whatever you can and take what you can get, its not the sort of job where you afforded the luxury of picking where you start off generally!
 

jimfrst

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2016
Messages
72
With c2c you also have to start as a shunt driver same as GA. There are a few mainline drivers courses planned soon so most of the shunters will get the chance to go up driving. The requirement at the moment is to have 1 year shunt driver experience before progression to the drivers course but this may be dropping to 6 months.
Mainline drivers are on £59740 at the moment and the current pay deal means an increase of 3% or RPI which ever is greater for the next 3 years.
 

jimfrst

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2016
Messages
72
GA. c2c has been a shambles since trenitalia took over.
National express left it in a right mess with lack of recruitment and cost cutting. Trenitalia are also cost cutting but at least they are recruiting more drivers and depot staff but they need more rolling stock ASAP. Too many 4 cars running around in peak times. And the units are being used more than ever so most are running around with faults already. Not enough hours in the day for the bombardier staff to work on them fixing everything.
 

consolegamer

Member
Joined
11 Dec 2018
Messages
7
Thanks for your replies. Does anyone know the training salary and first year qualified salary for mainline drivers at C2C? Or do you go straight to full pay once qualified?
 

jimfrst

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2016
Messages
72
You have to start off as a shunter driver at c2c first. The salary in 2017 was £23k rising to £27k once passed out as a Shunter driver. There has been a couple of pay rises since and I think the salary for shunt drivers is about £31-32k (not 100% sure on this figure)

When you start mainline training you stay on the basic shunt driver wages until you are fully qualified Then pay increases to £59740. With 3% or rpi whichever is greater increase each April until 2022 as per the last pay deal.
 

consolegamer

Member
Joined
11 Dec 2018
Messages
7
That’s good to know. I know that with GA they don’t put you on the full mainline salary for the first year after becoming fully qualified.

I understand that C2C have the Shoeburyness and East Ham depot. Since I live in Southend, I’d like to be working in Shoeburyness. If I was assigned to East Ham, do you think it would be relatively quick to transfer to Shoeburyness? Is there a long waiting list for transfers?
 

jimfrst

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2016
Messages
72
At the moment most of the new trainee drivers have been told they are to go to East Ham as that’s where they are short of drivers, regardless of if they were shunters at Shoebury so I expect the waiting list will increase soon. There are currently only 3 or 4 on the transfer list to go Shoebury and they have wanted to transfer for around 3 years. The policy at the moment seems to be send almost everyone to East Ham then let them transfer to Shoebury when vacancies become available. There are shunters at East Ham who live 5 min walk from Shoebury and have been employed at East Ham. But if you want to get on the railway you can’t really turn it down as the chance may not come along again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top