Southern - Conductor - Selhurst (27/05/24)

[stadler]

Southern currently have a vacancy for a Conductor at Selhurst depot:

GTR Careers

We are the UK’s largest railway franchise, operating Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express.

gtrailwaycareers.com

I thought this was worth posting in case anyone is interested as Conductor jobs at Southern are very rare and only one job seems to comes up every couple of years. I am pretty sure the last vacancy was over two years ago. This is because Southern have very few routes left with Guards required and also Eastbourne and Selhurst depots had a huge excess of Guards when Southern switched to DOO as these two depots kept all of their Guards (none were converted to the OBS role) even though they did not need all of them. So this is a rare chance to apply for this job.

Selhurst depot covers London Bridge to Uckfield 171s (which was one of my favourite routes to work when i was a Guard back in BR days) and Clapham to Watford 377s too. You also cover OBS duties sometimes. Sadly the variety of routes is very little compared to five or ten years ago (they used to cover a huge amount of the Southern network) but still an interesting variety. I have two friends who are still Guards at Selhurst and they seem to like it.

 

[Horizon22]

It is indeed very rare. I imagine Southern OBSs will go for it, surprised it's even external.

 

[43066]

It is indeed very rare. I imagine Southern OBSs will go for it, surprised it's even external.

I suppose you could turn that around and ask why someone currently in the OBS role would want to become a guard. Especially as they’d work over a more limited range of routes, with more responsibility, for not a lot (or any?) more money.

Might explain the need to go external!

 

[DMckduck]

Aren't OBS on much more money than the conductors anyway? Can't see why any of them would want to take a pay cut and become one if so.

Also may be off topic, have southern ever advertised the OBS role since it's inception or is that going down the natural wastage route?

 

[43066]

Also may be off topic, have southern ever advertised the OBS role since it's inception or is that going down the natural wastage route?

They do still recruit regularly for the OBS role.

 

[winks]

I know someone’s posted up before but what’s the pay gap between OBS And Conductors ?

 

[stadler]

OBS jobs are advertised very frequently. They have vacancies multiple times a year. On average these jobs seem to come up five or six times a year. They were just advertising for some in March 2024 a few months ago and then again at the end of last year. In contrast i have found out that the last Conductor vacancy was in May 2021 three years ago. So the OBS role is still being advertised regularly.

Yes oddly the OBSs have always been paid higher than Guards ever since the role was introduced.

The current pay for a Conductor is £24,209 rising to £35,750 on completion of training.

The current pay for an OBS is £27,767 rising to £37,760 on completion of training.

So it works out as about £2000 difference in their salary on completion of training but it does seem odd considering the Conductor role is safety critical and has far more training and responsibility where as the OBS role is a simpler non safety critical role.

Commission for ticket sales is different too. OBSs get a flat rate of 50p per ticket. Conductors get 5% per ticket but rising to 8% per ticket for the rest of the month once they have made £2000 of ticket sales in that month. So commission works out better for OBSs for selling cheaper tickets but better for Conductors for selling more expensive tickets.

 

[CSANewbie2024]

So I'm going to jump in on this one as I've recently been offered the role for this one - and currently weighing it up against a PT TFL CSA role I also received around the same time.

I'm 99% sold on this position as I really enjoyed the interview process and just the application process in general (seemed far more personal than TFL, but I get that TFL post hundreds of jobs!), but any current employees for GTR I'd welcome some insider opinions on how the company is to work for

 

[stadler]

So I'm going to jump in on this one as I've recently been offered the role for this one - and currently weighing it up against a PT TFL CSA role I also received around the same time.

I'm 99% sold on this position as I really enjoyed the interview process and just the application process in general (seemed far more personal than TFL, but I get that TFL post hundreds of jobs!), but any current employees for GTR I'd welcome some insider opinions on how the company is to work for

If i was you i would definitely say take this job. I would say being a Guard is a far more interesting job than a CSA. There is a lot of variety to this role. Some days you will work London to Uckfield 171s and some days you will work Clapham to Watford 377s and other days you will cover OBSs roles anywhere on the Southern network. It is certainly a very interesting job. Although it does depend on what you are looking for as i believe this role is full time and you mention it is a part time role for a CSA. So it depends what you are after.

I worked as a Guard at Selhurst depot back in BR days. Overall i loved the job. I left the railway industry in the 90s about a month before it was privatised so i can not speak for what it is like to work for GTR as a company. I am sure there are others on here who can comment about more about that. I have two close friends who both still work as Guards at Selhurst depot and they both really like the job.

There are some downsides to the Guard role like shift work. Although the same can be said about being a CSA and a lot of other roles on the railway. You can have early starts around 05:00 and late finishes around 01:00 so you will do early mornings and late evenings.