Romford, I also start In November, I was advised by another member to this forum (who started with MTR this month) that Trainee Drivers were issued with uniform on their second day into training.
Did you recently receive your email from MTR with a uniform request form?
With regards to your first question, I posted something very similar about 2 months ago, literally ever person that replied, and there was a cross section of long serving drivers, to drivers currently on our level, they all replied saying - wait until you start the training, It dont help to push on...
Hope it helps.