Virgin trains west coast recruitment

[notadriver]

Drivers always complain myself included. I bet most wouldn't rock the boat and move though. I can see Glasgow to Preston getting monotonous- I suppose at least Edinburgh based east coast drivers get to Aberdeen.

They don't get any further than Preston? I thought perhaps Liverpool or Birmingham might be possible.

 

[craigybagel]

Drivers always complain myself included. I bet most wouldn't rock the boat and move though. I can see Glasgow to Preston getting monotonous- I suppose at least Edinburgh based east coast drivers get to Aberdeen.

They don't get any further than Preston? I thought perhaps Liverpool or Birmingham might be possible.

Pretty much everybody on the railway complains. Still beats working in the real world though

And no, Scottish crews at Virgin don't go south of Preston. Glasgow do sometimes go to Edinburgh and vice versa ,and there are some diversions as well of course, but essentially most of their jobs, driver and Tm alike, are Preston and back .

 

[Albatross]

Right, if a driver has an excellent safety record, excellent attendance, relevant route knowledge etc and can perform well in interviews, then yes, I see no reason why Virgin wouldn't want to snap them up. But I know of blokes who have all of these attributes, who have still missed out on job offers from VT. If a freight man, with a less than perfect record is handed a virgin job, then it is a kick in the teeth for those that do have a decent record, but through no fault of their own are not being made redundant.

And you say a driver is a driver. I totally agree, however, would you rather be paid £56K to drive one trip to London a day, or get paid much less to drive uncomfortable clapped out units, doing three trips to stockport, followed by a preston and then a stopper to Chester, or similar????? The reality is, Virgin work is desirable, whether you like it or not, and therefore they can have their pick of applicants.

Not desirable in the least to me. I'd need a labotamy to drive London and back day after day after day.

The money is desirable, the work imo is the least desirable of any toc at pic.

 

[scally]

Hi

Just looking for a bit of info regarding Virgin's Wolverhampton depot.
What is the typical shift pattern, routes and a typical day's diagram etc.
Also, how many shifts start before 6am and finish after 11pm as I'm thinking about using train as well as car to commute if I did get a job with Virgin!

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[craigybagel]

Hi

Just looking for a bit of info regarding Virgin's Wolverhampton depot.
What is the typical shift pattern, routes and a typical day's diagram etc.
Also, how many shifts start before 6am and finish after 11pm as I'm thinking about using train as well as car to commute if I did get a job with Virgin!

Thanks in advance guys.

Preston-Euston direct and via the West Midlands, and lots diversions theirin. They also go out to Central Rivers depot, and Oxley of course. One link goes to Shrewsbury.

Last I checked they did a lot of triangles (Wolves-Preston-Euston-Wolves) or round trips to Euston with some depot work or a round trip to Birmingham on top. No double Euston's though unlike the TMs. Lots of early starts with all the first departures from the West Midlands needing prepping, and taxis out to Central Rivers to bring back Voyagers

 

[notadriver]

They certainly seem to earn their £££

 

[Nuttytoffee]

Hi, I know someone has mentioned it earlier but I was wondering if anyone out there would be kind enough to PM me and give me some details on the Wolverhampton depot, such as routes, shifts etc. Many thanks.

 

[siw8158]

Well it looks like they've done the first sift and despite being an under threat freight driver living 8 miles away from Wolverhampton, I've had the knock back. Hoping it's due to the fact I'm 12mths PQ driver. Bit gutted really as I was due to start driving for them in 05 and 07 and had the courses cancelled after signing my contract due to driver relocations and casually reminded them of this in my application.

Oh well,

Good luck to anyone in the running.

 

[JAMBO]

Siw8185, who do you work for.....DBS?

 

[siw8158]

No, Freightliner Heavy Haul. Suffering from the downturn too with talks in a few months.

 

[notadriver]

No, Freightliner Heavy Haul. Suffering from the downturn too with talks in a few months.

Sorry to hear that mate.

 

[JAMBO]

SW8158 reading your comments mate you most probably got a rejection due to your current driving experience.... You say 12 month PQA? it's little things like this how they sift applications and CV's these days to get the numbers down.