Tube Op-Mainline Driver

Whilst it is of course feasible, it isn't at all easy.

National Rail TOC's (Train operating Companies) do not recognise LU train drivers as qualified drivers and so anyone wishing to make the change has to do so by going through the process just as any other applicant would do.

That includes spending time as depot shunter on much lower wages than a qualified driver gets. In short, that's a big drop in pay.

Even on fully qualified pay though, LU pays more than almost any other TOC going. Then their pension schemes are most likely nowhere near as good as LU's and terms and conditions are often worse too.

Having helped a friend move to Lincolnshire recently, I would love move away from London to somewhere similar (SE13 might have something to say about that!!), but once you get so far with LU it gets very difficult to leave the pay and conditions you have. I don't mean that to come across in anyway snobbish, or to put down anyone else and the job they do (if they can even get a job), but it is the simple truth.

I have my PCV licence as a back up, but bus pay, conditions and pensions are not a patch on what I have now and I can't ignore that.

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum. I have posted a lot in other similar forums.

Colin you are right in that the tube driving licence isn't valid anywhere else but it works the other way round as well in that LUL don't recognise mainline drivers?

You can go straight to train driver without having to spend time as a depot or shunter driver on lower wages although of course you would be on a training wage for a while.

The money, holidays and pension scheme won't be as good as LUL but they aren't far off and i believe there are other benefits, the main one being a national rail licence enables you to apply to work at any depot in the country and possibly drive the newest fastest traction around!

I've got a manual PCV licence and i'm sure i could get a bus driving job at a good rate of pay anywhere although it of course won't match London's bus driver wages.

Also as far as i know only safeguarded tube staff get the 75 percent discounted travel all employees who work for TOC'S are entitled to as well as free travel on their own trains. Also discounted travel on Eurostar and services abroad. An employee for South Eastern gets free travel on SET, Southern and London Midland services!

Stagecoach were bought East London Bus Company or something along the lines of that and operate as Selkent now I think. The maintenance is almost as bad as arriva, and I certainly wouldn't want to drive one of their buses (not that I would drive a bus anyway, but you get the idea)

This thread is well off topic now.

I began my career on BR in 1986 working on the platform at Eastleigh. A month after I started I was joined by another newby, a chap by the name of Dave Brazier. He had previously been employed as a Driver on the MET in the 70s. He would have loved to have gone driving again but, as he was in his mid- forties, he was considered too old. Even if he hadn't been he would have had to gone through the process from the start despite his MET experience. After spending a while as a Guard he left Eastleigh and moved to Kent where he got a job as a Signalman.

I cannot understand why there is a lack of acknowledgement of experience between LT and the National Rail companies. I would imagine that anyone who has been through the rigours of LT training and then experienced the intensity of driving on LT would be a huge asset to a main line company but it doesn't seem to be like that. As to whether some of us main liners would be good enough for LT.... I know I wouldn't be!

Looks some of the TOC's have caught up with LU since I last perused that list, though c2c still look to be behind...

So, if I were to run with this and we said East Midland were a possibility......would anyone happen to know where their train crew depots are?....

They do change crews here in Lincoln, but I haven't got the foggiest idea where they started from.

Most trains come from either Peterborough or Leicester/Nottingham and seem to change crews here, but it's not to follow that this is actually where you can pick a duty up should you live in the City. I presume it goes on driving hours, and I'm guessing train drivers are on the same rules as bus drivers, making Lincoln an obvious crew change point.

I think Skegness is a depot and also a crew change point, but either way for obvious reasons, it's a terminus. Those trains go Skegness - Boston - Nottingham, and I know there is a depot at Nottingham.

The other line runs Peterborough - Sleaford - Lincoln.

Given that it takes me an hour to get from Lincoln to Boston, with a train change at Sleaford, I can only imagine that a driver will only get 1 to 1½ runs per duty before meal break.

Leicester and Nottingham for sure, not certain apart from that but could try to find out for you if you like - I know someone who used to be a driver on LU and now drives for EMT out of Nottingham.

Edited to add: and if you can find out where ASLEF has branches that should give you a good idea of where the traincrew depots are.

Hmm.....

Boston would be the one then, looking at that list (cheers )...