Guard/conductor salary GA or Thameslink

[andylikestrain]

Hi all
A few months ago I saw a thread about conductors on TfW and was surprised at the qualified conductor salary.
Would anyone be able to let me know what the training and qualified salaries for a guard/conductor are on Greater Anglia and Thameslink?

Thanks everyone

 

[stadler]

Hi all
A few months ago I saw a thread about conductors on TfW and was surprised at the qualified conductor salary.
Would anyone be able to let me know what the training and qualified salaries for a guard/conductor are on Greater Anglia and Thameslink?

Thanks everyone

Thameslink has not had Guards for about fourty years since the 1980s. These trains are DOO and run with a Driver only so there is no Guards on these.

If you are talking about Govia Thameslink Railway (who run the Gatwick Express / Great Northern / Southern / Thameslink brands) than they still have a small amount of Guards for their Southern brand. They still have a few Guards based at Eastbourne and Selhurst depots.

The current salary for a Conductor at Southern is starting at £24,209 and rising to £35,750 on completion of training. For comparison the current salary for an On Board Supervisor at Southern (which is a downgraded role that replaced the majority of Conductors about six or seven years ago) is a higher salary starting at £29,517 and rising to £39,648 on completion of training.

I am not sure what the salary for a Guard at Greater Anglia is. So hopefully someone else can help with that question. But it is worth pointing out that Greater Anglia have Conductors on Great Eastern T&Cs at Clacton and Colchester and Wickford depots and Conductors on Anglia Railways T&Cs at Norwich and Ipswich depots and Senior Conductors on Anglia Railways T&Cs at Norwich and London Liverpool Street depots. So i think the salary may possibly vary depending on which depot that you are based at and which type you are.

 

[andylikestrain]

Thanks, stadler.
Anybody got any Greater Anglia information?

Many thanks

 

[SuperLuke2334]

Hi all
A few months ago I saw a thread about conductors on TfW and was surprised at the qualified conductor salary.
Would anyone be able to let me know what the training and qualified salaries for a guard/conductor are on Greater Anglia and Thameslink?

Thanks everyone

TfW's Conductor salary is only so high because they brought Sundays into the working week, and had to make up for the extra money crew get for working Sundays. Other companies have lower salaries but their Sundays are outside the week (worked as overtime), and therefore get extra for working those.

 

[brighonboi]

Thameslink has not had Guards for about fourty years since the 1980s. These trains are DOO and run with a Driver only so there is no Guards on these.

If you are talking about Govia Thameslink Railway (who run the Gatwick Express / Great Northern / Southern / Thameslink brands) than they still have a small amount of Guards for their Southern brand. They still have a few Guards based at Eastbourne and Selhurst depots.

The current salary for a Conductor at Southern is starting at £24,209 and rising to £35,750 on completion of training. For comparison the current salary for an On Board Supervisor at Southern (which is a downgraded role that replaced the majority of Conductors about six or seven years ago) is a higher salary starting at £29,517 and rising to £39,648 on completion of training.

I am not sure what the salary for a Guard at Greater Anglia is. So hopefully someone else can help with that question. But it is worth pointing out that Greater Anglia have Conductors on Great Eastern T&Cs at Clacton and Colchester and Wickford depots and Conductors on Anglia Railways T&Cs at Norwich and Ipswich depots and Senior Conductors on Anglia Railways T&Cs at Norwich and London Liverpool Street depots. So i think the salary may possibly vary depending on which depot that you are based at and which type you are.

Hi there Stadler, I have an interview for an OBS with GTR next week, and since I applied, I believe a pay deal for 2023 and 2024 was agreed. I was wondering what the revised trained OBS and post training salaries now are? Thanks

 

[stadler]

Hi there Stadler, I have an interview for an OBS with GTR next week, and since I applied, I believe a pay deal for 2023 and 2024 was agreed. I was wondering what the revised trained OBS and post training salaries now are? Thanks

Sorry for the late reply. I have double checked and the salaries i posted a few months ago are the new salaries since the pay deal was agreed. So you will start at £29,517 and rise to £39,648 on completion of training. That is the current OBS salaries for all depots.

 

[Towers]

The current salary for a Conductor at Southern is starting at £24,209 and rising to £35,750 on completion of training. For comparison the current salary for an On Board Supervisor at Southern (which is a downgraded role that replaced the majority of Conductors about six or seven years ago) is a higher salary starting at £29,517 and rising to £39,648 on completion of training.

How on earth are they paying non safety critical OBS more than they’re paying their actual guards? Is this a ‘divide and conquer’ sort of thing?!

 

[Somewhere]

How on earth are they paying non safety critical OBS more than they’re paying their actual guards? Is this a ‘divide and conquer’ sort of thing?!

Sundays are inside for OBSs. This is the reason, even though it doesn't make sense!

 

[stadler]

How on earth are they paying non safety critical OBS more than they’re paying their actual guards? Is this a ‘divide and conquer’ sort of thing?!

That has always been the case since the OBS role has been created. They have always been paid around £4000 to £5000 more salary than the Conductor role. It is bonkers though and you would expect it to be the other way round.

Training to be a Conductor takes around six times as long as the OBS training. In addition a Conductor is safety critical and has PTS training and evacuation training and has to have route knowledge and traction knowledge and a bunch of other extea training. But an OBS has none of this and instead has much simpler training.

It is probably something to do with the deal agreed regarding the OBS role during that 2016 and 2017 era DOO dispute. I think it might have been done as an incentive to encourage more staff to accept the OBS role. But it is bonkers that they get paid more for a much simpler role.

Sundays are inside for OBSs. This is the reason, even though it doesn't make sense!

That is true but even so that seems crazy. Paying an extra £4000 to £5000 salary just to include Sunday in the working week is bonkers. Especially when you consider that it is a much simpler role with so much less training.

 

[Towers]

Sundays are inside for OBSs. This is the reason, even though it doesn't make sense!

Ah, ok! That makes sense then!

 

[Horizon22]

Southern also has barely any Conductors now.

That is true but even so that seems crazy. Paying an extra £4000 to £5000 salary just to include Sunday in the working week is bonkers. Especially when you consider that it is a much simpler role with so much less training.

You add up all Conductor Sundays then it really won't be a huge difference. There are also different commission rates between OBS and Conductor with the former getting a "per-ticket" rate I believe.

 

[whoosh]

Do OBS at Southern not only have Sunday in the working week, but work the same amount of hours as they used to as Guards (average 35 hour week) Monday to Saturday, AND have their previous overtime hours on a Sunday now included in a seven day working week with a higher number of hours? So it's actually an average 37 or 38 hour week?

I.e. They don't get a day off in the week when they work a Sunday - they have a longer working week with Sundays inside.

Is that right?

 

[Sly Sloth]

Do OBS at Southern not only have Sunday in the working week, but work the same amount of hours as they used to as Guards (average 35 hour week) Monday to Saturday, AND have their previous overtime hours on a Sunday now included in a seven day working week with a higher number of hours? So it's actually an average 37 or 38 hour week?

I.e. They don't get a day off in the week when they work a Sunday - they have a longer working week with Sundays inside.

Is that right?

OBS have Sundays in the week 37.5 average per week.
Conductors are 35 hours Sunday outside.

 

[stadler]

Southern also has barely any Conductors now.



You add up all Conductor Sundays then it really won't be a huge difference. There are also different commission rates between OBS and Conductor with the former getting a "per-ticket" rate I believe.

Yes that is correct. OBSs get a flat rate commission of 50p per ticket sold. Conductors get 5% commission, however once they have made £2000 worth of ticket sales in that month, they then get 8% commission for the rest of the month. So generally the commission works out better for OBSs for cheaper tickets (less than £10), but works out better for Conductors for more expensive tickets (more than £10), so which rate is better really depends on what tickets they sell.

 

[whoosh]

OBS have Sundays in the week 37.5 average per week.
Conductors are 35 hours Sunday outside.

Thankyou for clarifying.