• 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!

GWR Paddington - Driver

Status
Not open for further replies.

SA91

Member
Joined
9 Apr 2018
Messages
66
Hi,

Can anyone shed some light into GWR Paddington depot? How is GWR to work for? How is Paddington as a depot? Earliest starts / latest finishes? Sundays inside or outside? Taxi services? How many links? Maximum possible turn lengths? How often are night turns?

The Aslef company info page seems to have disappeared so can't check certain basic T&Cs...

Any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Southern Dvr

Member
Joined
13 Oct 2010
Messages
875
Hi,

Can anyone shed some light into GWR Paddington depot? How is GWR to work for? How is Paddington as a depot? Earliest starts / latest finishes? Sundays inside or outside? Taxi services? How many links? Maximum possible turn lengths? How often are night turns?

The Aslef company info page seems to have disappeared so can't check certain basic T&Cs...

Any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers.
Are there vacancies?
 

martin2345uk

Established Member
Joined
21 Sep 2011
Messages
2,052
Location
Essex
The "Company Information" is still there on the ASLEF site but you have to log in to see it
 

tiptoptaff

Established Member
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Messages
2,983
Without knowing the specifics of Paddington, GWR don't offer any form of taxi agreement. Wholly your responsibility to get to/from work
 

martin2345uk

Established Member
Joined
21 Sep 2011
Messages
2,052
Location
Essex
Ah sorry yes, it's a known issue with the site, that page only displays correctly on desktop at the moment.

Without knowing the specifics of Paddington, GWR don't offer any form of taxi agreement. Wholly your responsibility to get to/from work
Does this imply there are companies out there who get drivers taxis to get to work..??
 

beany

Member
Joined
17 Nov 2015
Messages
56
Paddington split into 2 depots.
HSS and GWR LTV.No more drivers will join HSS.So all new starters and transfers go into LTV.
3 links plus dynamic link which sign Bristol,when more drivers needed for Bristol then taken from link 1.
9hr 30 max length of shift
Sundays outside.
Sundays allocated but Paddington drivers have local agreement to opt out of booked turn,these are then covered by volunteers and then by other depots.
Earliest start is 3am.
There are Night shifts but not many.Think these finish by 5am.
Rest days on 3 week cycle,
Mon and tue
Wed and thur
Fri and Sat
So every 3rd week is 5 days off (you are never allocated a Sunday in the middle of the 5)
Majority of LTV drivers at Paddington have a permanent swap for earlies or lates.
New drivers will sign 800,165/166,387
Routes are Oxford,Newbury,Bedwyn,Reading
Branch lines Slough-Windsor,West Ealing-Greenford
 

SA91

Member
Joined
9 Apr 2018
Messages
66
Paddington split into 2 depots.
HSS and GWR LTV.No more drivers will join HSS.So all new starters and transfers go into LTV.
3 links plus dynamic link which sign Bristol,when more drivers needed for Bristol then taken from link 1.
9hr 30 max length of shift
Sundays outside.
Sundays allocated but Paddington drivers have local agreement to opt out of booked turn,these are then covered by volunteers and then by other depots.
Earliest start is 3am.
There are Night shifts but not many.Think these finish by 5am.
Rest days on 3 week cycle,
Mon and tue
Wed and thur
Fri and Sat
So every 3rd week is 5 days off (you are never allocated a Sunday in the middle of the 5)
Majority of LTV drivers at Paddington have a permanent swap for earlies or lates.
New drivers will sign 800,165/166,387
Routes are Oxford,Newbury,Bedwyn,Reading
Branch lines Slough-Windsor,West Ealing-Greenford
Brilliant, cheers.
 

tiptoptaff

Established Member
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Messages
2,983
Ah sorry yes, it's a known issue with the site, that page only displays correctly on desktop at the moment.


Does this imply there are companies out there who get drivers taxis to get to work..??
Yep, there are indeed companies with taxi agreements.

Eurostar even provide hotels
 

800 Driver

Member
Joined
30 Aug 2019
Messages
89
Location
London
Hi,

Can anyone shed some light into GWR Paddington depot? How is GWR to work for? How is Paddington as a depot? Earliest starts / latest finishes? Sundays inside or outside? Taxi services? How many links? Maximum possible turn lengths? How often are night turns?

The Aslef company info page seems to have disappeared so can't check certain basic T&Cs...

Any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers.
Pointless asking earliest starts / late finishes as they change every timetable change. However we usually have starts starting from 02.xx and turns finishing as late as 04.xx - plus night turns (we sign 3 depots to take trains from and to). Most drivers (2/3) do permanent swaps to either lates or earlys.

Sundays for any new drivers will have a level of commitment (but you don't have to work all your rostered Sundays) basically about 1 in 2 are rostered but you'll only have 1 in 3 commitment (so you'll get some wild passes for about 8 Sundays a year) - drivers pre 2018 harmonisation have no commitment. If you find someone to cover any Sunday you are committed to you won't have to work it and there's normally volunteers.

There are 3 links, one of which is more long distance (Bristol via Bath and Parkway, with Cheltenham and or Cardiff likely to be added soon). Link progression is by volunteering, with seniority used if there are too many or too few applicants for progression.

Generally the GWR depot is really friendly and chilled and people look out for each other. No comment on the HSS one.

Max turn length is 9h30 (8h45 for pre 6am starts) - most of the work is 800s to Bedwyn and Oxford with a few 387s thrown in and Greenford and Windsor branches. Of the 2 LTV links the top one tends to have more 800s and fewer branches. There's also a lot of shed and ferry to and from North Pole. So it's a nice balance of work. 800/802s, 387s, 165/6s plus Paddington will also learn ETCS L2 for taking the Hex 387s to Reading TCD for when they extend ETCS coverage from Airport Junction to Southall and then Acton from September.
 
Last edited:

SA91

Member
Joined
9 Apr 2018
Messages
66
Pointless asking earliest starts / late finishes as they change every timetable change. However we usually have starts starting from 02.xx and turns finishing as late as 04.xx - plus night turns (we sign 3 depots to take trains from and to). Most drivers (2/3) do permanent swaps to either lates or earlys.

Sundays for any new drivers will have a level of commitment (but you don't have to work all your rostered Sundays) basically about 1 in 2 are rostered but you'll only have 1 in 3 commitment (so you'll get some wild passes for about 8 Sundays a year) - drivers pre 2018 harmonisation have no commitment. If you find someone to cover any Sunday you are committed to you won't have to work it and there's normally volunteers.

There are 3 links, one of which is more long distance (Bristol via Bath and Parkway, with Cheltenham and or Cardiff likely to be added soon). Link progression is by volunteering, with seniority used if there are too many or too few applicants for progression.

Generally the GWR depot is really friendly and chilled and people look out for each other. No comment on the HSS one.

Max turn length is 9h30 (8h45 for pre 6am starts) - most of the work is 800s to Bedwyn and Oxford with a few 387s thrown in and Greenford and Windsor branches. Of the 2 LTV links the top one tends to have more 800s and fewer branches. There's also a lot of shed and ferry to and from North Pole. So it's a nice balance of work. 800/802s, 387s, 165/6s plus Paddington will also learn ETCS L2 for taking the Hex 387s to Reading TCD for when they extend ETCS coverage from Airport Junction to Southall and then Acton from September.
Amazing stuff thank you. Yeah I agree with the starts and finishes. Just wanted to have a rough gauge of the times. The additional work you mentioned coming September sounds interesting.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top