Latest news with #traindrivers
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Freight train derailed in Russia's Kursk Oblast after bridge collapse
A railway bridge collapsed in Russia's Kursk Oblast on the morning of 1 June 2025, derailing a freight train. Source: Alexander Khinshtein, Acting Governor of Kursk Oblast, on Telegram Details: The collapse occurred overnight on the 48th kilometre of the Trosna–Kalinovka highway in the Zheleznogorskyi district as a freight train was passing over it. Khinshtein reported that part of the train fell onto the road below the bridge. He stated that one of the train drivers sustained leg injuries, according to preliminary reports. Background: On the night of 31 May, a road bridge in Russia's Bryansk Oblast collapsed onto a passenger train, killing seven people and injuring about 70. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
'Age is just a number for becoming a train driver'
Meet 27-year-old train driver, Liam Mackenzie. He works at Southern Railway and has done so since he was 18. But he has not always been in his dream job. That's because, until recently, drivers had to be 20 to begin training. Now that is changing, and the age is being lowered to 18. "Since I was young I always wanted to do this. My dad worked on the railway, his dad worked on the railway, and my brother did for a small time too, so this has always been in the forefront of my mind," said Liam. Liam started his railway career as a platform conductor and waited until he was old enough to start the intensive train driver training. When the time came the process started with six months in a training school and tests every month. This was followed by an assignment to a depot and 225 hours of train driving experience with a dedicated instructor - 40 of which had to be done at night. The practical training was accompanied by an "intensive programme" of theoretical study, Liam said. "You have to go and learn your routes - tunnel names, signalling areas - you name it, you have to know it," he added. Liam said this process ended with the final test: "You get a week-long exam with a competency assessor who will eventually sign you off, if you're competent to drive alone. "That's a really intense week - that's everything you know - you have to show them you know." In terms of lowering the age for new drivers, Liam said: "I think it's a great thing. "If you pass all the assessments you are showing you've got the mental strength and the concentration and all the traits you need to do it - so the age just becomes a number. "In other industries you can start at 18 - like bus driving. You can drive a car at 18," he added. The rail industry faces the problem of replacing a growing number of people retiring with new recruits, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. It said the average age of a UK train driver is currently 48, with 30% set to reach retirement age by 2029, meaning more drivers are urgently needed. Opening up the recruitment pool to 18 and 19 year olds "unlocks thousands of jobs," the government said. Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers' union Aslef, said the industry had previously "missed out" on young people wanting to become train drivers "as they don't wait around until they turn 20 to find a career". The Rail Safety and Standards Board said its research found "18 year olds are capable of safely becoming train drivers". Liam reflects on his own journey to becoming a train driver. "I would have loved to drive trains at 18 - I would have bitten the hand off someone to get the opportunity to do this at 18." "For me, it's a great career, I don't mind the early wake ups, the late going to beds - it gives me a bit more control over my life. I absolutely love it." Showing off the controls of a Southern Railway train, Liam says he gets a "real sense of pride of getting people where they need to be in a safe manner... preferably on time too!" Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Minimum age to be a train driver lowered to 18 Teenagers could help fill train driver shortage Train drivers overwhelmingly middle-aged white men Advice on becoming a train driver
BBC News
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
'I wish I could have started my dream job as train driver at 18'
Meet 27-year-old train driver, Liam works at Southern Railway and has done so since he was 18. But he has not always been in his dream job. That's because, until recently, drivers had to be 20 to begin training. Now that is changing, and the age is being lowered to 18."Since I was young I always wanted to do this. My dad worked on the railway, his dad worked on the railway, and my brother did for a small time too, so this has always been in the forefront of my mind," said Liam. 'Intensive training' Liam started his railway career as a platform conductor and waited until he was old enough to start the intensive train driver training. When the time came the process started with six months in a training school and tests every month. This was followed by an assignment to a depot and 225 hours of train driving experience with a dedicated instructor - 40 of which had to be done at night. The practical training was accompanied by an "intensive programme" of theoretical study, Liam said. "You have to go and learn your routes - tunnel names, signalling areas - you name it, you have to know it," he added. Liam said this process ended with the final test: "You get a week-long exam with a competency assessor who will eventually sign you off, if you're competent to drive alone."That's a really intense week - that's everything you know - you have to show them you know." In terms of lowering the age for new drivers, Liam said: "I think it's a great thing."If you pass all the assessments you are showing you've got the mental strength and the concentration and all the traits you need to do it - so the age just becomes a number. "In other industries you can start at 18 - like bus driving. You can drive a car at 18," he rail industry faces the problem of replacing a growing number of people retiring with new recruits, the Department for Transport (DfT) said the average age of a UK train driver is currently 48, with 30% set to reach retirement age by 2029, meaning more drivers are urgently needed. Opening up the recruitment pool to 18 and 19 year olds "unlocks thousands of jobs," the government Whelan, general secretary of train drivers' union Aslef, said the industry had previously "missed out" on young people wanting to become train drivers "as they don't wait around until they turn 20 to find a career".The Rail Safety and Standards Board said its research found "18 year olds are capable of safely becoming train drivers". 'Absolutely love it' Liam reflects on his own journey to becoming a train driver."I would have loved to drive trains at 18 - I would have bitten the hand off someone to get the opportunity to do this at 18.""For me, it's a great career, I don't mind the early wake ups, the late going to beds - it gives me a bit more control over my life. I absolutely love it." Showing off the controls of a Southern Railway train, Liam says he gets a "real sense of pride of getting people where they need to be in a safe manner... preferably on time too!"
The Guardian
11-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘It's an illogical job': Why driving a train isn't as cushy as it might seem
Few professions' pay have aroused such incredulous ire as train drivers: earning an average of nearly £70,000 a year, going on strike to demand more, and they don't even have to steer. But if it really is such a cushy number, why doesn't Britain have enough drivers – and what does it take to join their ranks? Driver shortages have become a leading cause of disruption on Britain's railways; about seven out of eight 'P-coded' cancellations, made the night before travel, are down to a missing driver. Parts of the timetable still rely on drivers working voluntary overtime. Also looming is a potential mass exodus, with thousands of drivers recruited in boom years now approaching retirement. That prompted the government to announce this week that it was changing the rules to allow 18-year-olds to start driving trains – two years younger than the current legal minimum. But as recent job adverts for Northern Railway show, driving may not be quite the money for old rope that headlines sometimes imply. The training salary of £26,000 rises to £62,000 in three years; but the attributes required include 'diligence and moral courage', 'zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol' and 'exceptional concentration skills within a low-stimulus environment', not to mention 3am starts. Still, the Department for Transport wants at least 5,000 more drivers and hopes that gen Z will help them meet that target. According to the DfT, nearly half of qualified drivers are over the age of 50, while only 3% are under 30. In the East Midlands Railway (EMR) training centre, at the back of Derby train station, the new recruits are typically later life career changers, including some who work in different roles in the railway. 'We have a lot of ex-police, ex-fire brigade, who tend to like the rules and regulations,' says Mark Letman, EMR's lead operations training manager and himself ex-army. He oversees 50 to 60 trainees a year, starting with an 18-week intensive theory course on the drivers' rulebook. Tim Joyce, 53, is retraining after 30 years in the fire service. Of his new life, he says: 'It's similar in many ways – you have to learn the rules but ultimately be ready to apply them in the real world.' He shows his copy of the rulebook, known as 'the brick' or 'the bible': a hefty tome generously bookmarked with multicoloured labels. 'These modules are up to 100 pages each and there are maybe 40 of them,' Joyce says. Letman picks up the brick and counts through: 'Twenty-one.' Either way, it looks heavy for a driver to have to lug around every day. 'He carries it between his ears,' Letman says, tapping his head with a look that suggests this Guardian correspondent will never be a train driver. The trainees have been through two rounds of interviews as well as psychometric tests – on which the failure rate alone is 60% to 70%. The exam on the rulebook requires a 90% score to pass and driver competency is checked every two years. Drivers have to live near a depot and travel there and back when other public transport is probably unavailable. That means most are recruited locally – though in EMR's case that can be London as well as Boston. Anita Bradfield, 60, is in training to work out of St Pancras, having already swapped a career in dancing to work for Network Rail as a mobile operations manager. 'I'd go out to assist drivers and be seeing them every day – I thought it'd be good to have a go!' she says. 'It's a challenge and good learning. No day is ever the same.' If the trainees pass the theory exam, they go on to what Letman calls the 'traction phase': learning the nuts and bolts of train driving in class and using a new £1.5m simulator. Only then are they sent to the depot with a mentor and instructors to rack up 200 hours of driving under instruction before being let loose alone with passengers. The whole process takes at least eight months. Among the EMR trainees, Charlie Potts, at 22, is part of the more elusive demographic the industry is chasing, having decided after a geography and urban planning degree to listen to his old man. 'My dad was a train driver – and he always talked it up.' School leavers without such connections could now be persuaded, Letman says. 'The good thing now is we can go into schools and say it could be a career now, for life.' Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion That could diversify the workforce, the industry hopes. According to Aslef, the train drivers union, the average entry age is 34, which Mick Whelan, the general secretary, says 'concerns us massively'. Few women in particular, he says, want to change careers at that point in life. One of those trying the EMR simulators, though not yet aiming to switch jobs, was the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander. 'The driver shortage problem is a genuine problem across the UK,' she said. 'Especially in parts of the country, strangely, where we're trying hardest to improve services, like the north-east.' The new age rules, Alexander said, were only 'part of the puzzle' but could make a big difference. 'Giving young people when they're leaving school or college the ability to go straight into training to be a driver, instead of having to worry what they're going to do for a couple of years, is really significant.' The pandemic exacerbated the shortage of drivers: Covid-era regulations halted training and many drivers also sought a better work-life balance. Fewer passengers and lower fare revenue also left the government underwriting train companies, leaving a cash-strapped sector freezing pay. Strikes ensued and a loss of goodwill persists. Much of the railway relies on rest-day working, or voluntary overtime, and in many places, drivers no longer fancy it. But there is still demand for jobs, Whelan says. 'We've seen places like Wales recently advertise drivers' jobs and they've been inundated.' So why can't we recruit more? 'It's the hurdles,' Whelan says. 'It's an illogical job when you think about it, sitting in a little can, working at 120 miles an hour, relying on the infrastructure below you and pressing a little handle to stop at a point three miles away you can't see. People keep making out if you drive a bus, drive a car, you can drive a train. You can't.' Aslef continues to campaign for what it calls 'dignity at work'. While passenger carriages, air-conditioning and seats have been refurbished, drivers have sometimes been left in old cabs. Drivers also have to cope with sparse toilet facilities. In one tragic case in 2022, a driver was killed by another train after, accident investigators believe, stopping in a siding to urinate. And, Whelan says, 'People forget it's shift work. When you're walking down a siding at 3.20am in the rain to get a train ready and it's freezing cold, it's not quite as pretty as when you're rolling into a station in the sunlight.'
RNZ News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Train driver minimum age to be lowered to 18 in UK
United Kingdom correspondent Alice Wilkins spoke to Lisa Owen about a tariff deal between the UK and the United States, how criminals in the UK could face sanctions for refusing to attend court for their sentencing and how train drivers in the UK could soon be teenagers. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
