As part of our plans to improve the performance and resilience of our train service, we’re recruiting and training more Drivers.
Driver training is the responsibility of our Operations and Safety Training Centre in Basingstoke, through a mix of classroom-based learning, time on simulators, and real world training on the network. The whole process can take between 12 and 15 months, before a Trainee sits their final exams and then begins their route-learning.
To deliver the increase in Drivers, we have ramped up our training and currently have around 188 going through the process. We’re also training more Driver Instructors who help the trainees out on the network.
This is starting to deliver results, and recently, we had an unprecedented seven drivers pass their final exams in the same week. This is significantly more than our average of around one or two per week, and shows we are moving in the right direction.
