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London Waterloo commuting

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Jaeger

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I'm imminently being posted to London Waterloo as a trainee mainline driver, can anyone out there confirm whether the hours are designed that you can travel to work/home from central London on public transport or do I need to rush out for a motorbike? I don't do night buses with the drunks etc.
 
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Lrd

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Night Buses are actually pretty decent and usually full of workers...
 

Sirgerbil

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Night buses aren't that bad at all. You'll get 1 or 2 days where at certain time's you'll have a few people on there that have been out on the razz, even then they confine themselves to the back of the bus and fall asleep. You can get to Waterloo on a night bus in good time from every corner of London. They are usually faster than you expect too, during weekdays they fly from the suburbs to central!

Being a biker myself, the last thing you want is to do an early shift (Which by all accounts is a nice ride into work) finish at around 2-3pm and have to fight the traffic back out and get home in one big stress. I avoid riding to work where possible but sometimes it has to be done.
 

Barry K

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Night buses aren't that bad at all. They are usually faster than you expect too, during weekdays they fly from the suburbs to central!


Depends on what you class as "The Suburbs". I used to be a night bus driver, on a route that took 90 minutes to get from Marble Arch to the other side of Croydon, and one that took about an hour Liverpool Street-Mitcham. Very unreliable Thursday night to Sunday night due to drunks causing issues at various points, and heavy traffic around Brixton when the Academy had a big show on......
 

WA_Driver

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I'm imminently being posted to London Waterloo as a trainee mainline driver, can anyone out there confirm whether the hours are designed that you can travel to work/home from central London on public transport or do I need to rush out for a motorbike? I don't do night buses with the drunks etc.

The hours as a driver at Waterloo aren’t designed for anything (only to get stock where it needs to be) The shifts at Waterloo can be and usually are amended so one week finish could be 0054 and the next week 0114. Or start at 0403 one week or next 0354....
 

WA_Driver

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7 Apr 2015
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148
Location
London
I'm imminently being posted to London Waterloo as a trainee mainline driver, can anyone out there confirm whether the hours are designed that you can travel to work/home from central London on public transport or do I need to rush out for a motorbike? I don't do night buses with the drunks etc.

The hours as a driver at Waterloo aren’t designed for anything (only to get stock where it needs to be) The shifts at Waterloo can be and usually are amended so one week finish could be 0054 and the next week 0114. Or start at 0403 one week or next 0354....

I live in what you would call the “suburbs” but I can manage to get the tube and bus. The very rare occasion I use a night bus I never have had any problems. Weekends are busy but again I can use the 24 hour tube services and 24 hour bus/night bus....
 

Jaeger

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My experience of night buses is pretty griefy. Interesting to hear from a previous night bus driver.
 

Jaeger

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This is what I suspected.

Depends on what you class as "The Suburbs". I used to be a night bus driver, on a route that took 90 minutes to get from Marble Arch to the other side of Croydon, and one that took about an hour Liverpool Street-Mitcham. Very unreliable Thursday night to Sunday night due to drunks causing issues at various points, and heavy traffic around Brixton when the Academy had a big show on......
 

WA_Driver

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Being a Waterloo Driver I can tell you I have done both driving into work and using night buses.

I’d rather use a night bus or 24hour tube/buses. Driving in isn’t worth the hassle & the extra stress. If you drive in for the very early starts by the time it you finish you have to deal with the busy roads in & out of Waterloo the constant congestion, traffic lights everywhere and the idiocy of other drivers and it’s the same driving in for the late finishes.....I’ve sat in traffic and have seen the train that I would of got home go pass me and you will think to yourself it isn’t worth it and when you finally get home your even more tired. At least the train home you can sit and relax.

I’d wait until you’ve actually got to Waterloo and see what the duties you get and try the night buses.
 

GMT

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I suppose those who are bound to drive are the drivers living in the home counties, if there are any, but I suppose there are a few. Unless the shift allows them to catch a train. There used to be actually a South West Trains driver on the train I take every morning, getting to London Bridge at 6.30 and therefore Waterloo East two minutes after.
 

Sirgerbil

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Depends on what you class as "The Suburbs". I used to be a night bus driver, on a route that took 90 minutes to get from Marble Arch to the other side of Croydon, and one that took about an hour Liverpool Street-Mitcham. Very unreliable Thursday night to Sunday night due to drunks causing issues at various points, and heavy traffic around Brixton when the Academy had a big show on......

I can relate, used to be a driver out of Peckham myself, Also worked in CentreComm for my last year at TFL.

Guess you become immune to it all after a certain number of years!
 

BTU

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13 Jan 2016
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I'm imminently being posted to London Waterloo as a trainee mainline driver, can anyone out there confirm whether the hours are designed that you can travel to work/home from central London on public transport or do I need to rush out for a motorbike? I don't do night buses with the drunks etc.
I'm with you I don't do night buses or any buses for that matter I got the motorcycle best thing I did gets me to and from work no problem any time of day or night.
 

Barry K

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I can relate, used to be a driver out of Peckham myself, Also worked in CentreComm for my last year at TFL.

Guess you become immune to it all after a certain number of years!

So tell me, how does one get in to Centrecomm????
 

Sirgerbil

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So tell me, how does one get in to Centrecomm????

It’s usually advertised internally within TFL as a secondment then progressing on to a full time role is there’s space. Secondments are usually to cover maternity or other secondments. It’s very rare someone external will get the job even if it’s advertised.

When you’ve done your secondments you sit on a “Panel” where you will cover ad hoc if your able to released from normal duties.

It was by far (Minus train driving) the best job I ever had. It’s a very difficult environment where you are constantly spinning plates with periods of no activity for hours then the next call is a fight or RTC.

They are going through lots of changes at the moment with the current TFL “Transformation” programme and I very much doubt they will recruit again for possibly years.
 

Barry K

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Sounds a lot like my current job in Motorway Control, except a lot less accessible. Not what you know........
 
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