how much does a train op earn?

Indeed, agency/contract work may pay highly but it's often short-term and temporary - so higher earnings but less job security. It's a bit like why some teachers choose to work full time on supply, they can get £25 an hour with no commitments like marking work, but the work isn't on a guarunteed basis, it's just 'what comes'.

One thing I'd advise (as my avatar shows) is get on a college course and get a fork lift licence - despite the fact I got mine at work (trained by Sainsburys) I know others that did theirs via the college and have done well. The advantage is that you can learn to drive both reach and counterbalance (I was only ever a reach driver) and it always gives something to fall back on. The money you can earn isn't bad....in my old job as a night shift worker I got £28,000 a year (quite a bit more than I'm on now), I joined LU as I'd wanted to be a train operator since I was young, and had to leave to have any chance of doing it!!!!

People do tend to make hasty comments on jobs they know little or nothing about. Unless you have actually done the job in question, I feel those comments are based on ignorance and - dare I say it - jealousy. Train Operators are, I feel, paid well for doing a very responsible job which requires high levels of concentration for long periods of time. It is a demanding job, despite what some people would have you think. I think there can be no denying that nurses, for example, are paid a pittance. But that's not to say TO's are paid "too much", which is the kind of comment I have heard before. Sour grapes, me thinks. And for the record, I think Instructor Operators should be paid more for what they do. I was fortunate enough to have spent three weeks of my job training with a superb IO; I still practice some of the driving techniques she taught me.

I got my first job when I was seventeen-years-old and I was paid the grand sum of £2.88 an hour (working for Woolworths) so I'm quite proud of myself for being where I am now. Like others, I worked in retail for about eight years getting very little in return in terms of pay. That's just the way it is, unfortunately.

I don't think many people (except perhaps some of the more arrogant doctors...) think that nurses don't do anything. The point is more that they're choosing to do something they really really want to do, so it's fair enough that they get less financial reward for it than if they were putting their efforts into something less rewarding in other ways.

(a more direct comparison, since it's the same people with the same qualification, is between city lawyers, who get paid an enormous amount because their job is entirely dull and pointless, and CPS/legal aid lawyers in criminal cases, who get paid next to nothing but do the job because it's interesting and personally/morally rewarding.)

In general, once you're out of the ranks of unskilled work into professional-type work, any job that a kid might say "I want to be a X when I grow up" pays worse than any job that they wouldn't. Getting back on topic - the most obvious exception is for train drivers!

John B

Aye, was also in retail too... seems a lot of us come from that background...

Was on the grand sum of £5.26 an hour, doing a 44 hour week, and overtime, with an overly complicated way of paying us for that overtime...

If t/ops could earn similar money elsewhere - with similar benefits , how many would leave tomorrow.
Messroom banter would suggest quite a few

Can't remember the last time tube staff actually went on strike regarding pay.
The last all out strike i remember was the 35 hour week one in '96 and even then it was only train staff that walked out.

Getting back on topic, is there much overtime to be had for train operators? Most companies rely on staff to work overtime to give flexibility.

Under the station staff framework, 2 hours OT can be FORCED onto a member of staff in an emergency

It is unlikely (I stand to be corrected by Train Ops here) ;D ;D ;D
Any pestering is not on really! and no reason has to be given. It is up to LUL to manage their attendance and staffing levels. If they hae trouble covering duties (which they do), more staff should be employed.




I forgot about that! Of course there is the disambiguous definition of "Emergency". If there is no cover available, then at however long it takes to "close" where you are working, you start to close out.

Well yes. This is a unique event. I think that staff would do what they can. And did.

Even 'small' emergencies tend to result in some of us staying on a bit longer without necessarily being asked; we had a part suspension yesterday due to the incident at Wood Green and the other CSA with me who was due to finish at about 2.30 (something ridiculous like 14.35...) stayed on until about ten past three, because five minutes after the service went down, 91 kids (about 5-6 years old...) and all their assisting staff piled into the station. And you know how Holden's ticket halls can echo!!! Rather than leave the supervisor and I to handle them, and all the other customers, and the communications from the other stations and Line Controller, between us, he stayed on until after the 3pm CSA had turned up.

Don't forget in a major emergency staff are often going to have a struggle to get home, so staying on may actually be preferable for a little while!! With yesterday's little incident I was told I could finish shortly after four, having been on my feet and dealing with customers and these kids constantly since everything kicked off, and I couldn't actually leave until over 20 minutes later, when our next Eastbound actually came through. I only needed to get one station away, and *could* have walked it if I felt desperate or if the service hadn't resumed, but it seemed easier to stay on. (Especially since the supervisor was about to blow his top at a contractor - we couldn't keep the passengers on the platform properly informed due to a fault with the PA volume being set too loud, rendering messages unintelligable. The contractor wasn't allowed to turn the volume down, despite the fact that we needed that PA working...)