The TOC I work for pay structure is as follows (eastern ex-atn conditions)

Training wage - £13500 basic
PQA (Post Qualify Assessment) (initial pass out) - £31600 year one
1st Bi-Annual Rules assessment (1 year driving on your own) - £33400

the figures are give or take £500 either way as we have just been awarded a 4.6% rise

For training, I was luckily enough to stay on conductors pay rate of £19235 - which, itself isn't bad at all

My working week is 35 hours over 4 days, but sundays are included in that. However, with the annual leave and rest day pattern, I only work 5 months of the year


What you will find is if you want to go freight or long distance passenger work (IE, GNER, Virgin West Coast, Arriva XC (ex Virgin XC), Midland Mainline and FGW that they will only employ drivers who have had 2 years incident free driving, but its swings and roundabouts - I couldn't be happy going to london and back each day, I much prefer my routes from Leeds to Skipton (including the Bradford and Ilkley branches), Manchester Victoria, Huddersfield, Selby, York, Sheffield - quite a lot of route miles which is varied enough to keep the interest there

I would love to work for DRS tho, they use some fantastic traction - 20's, 33's, 37's, 47's, 66's - thats a range right from the first type-1 loco's introduced in 1957 (the class 20 - which I also drive on a preserved railway ) right thru to modern day loco's that are only a few years old - 66's Altho the prospect of having 2 heads and glowing in the dark from hauling nuclear waste is not to my liking

I'll add you to MSN when I get home on sunday evening as I'm at my other halfs all weekend and forgot my laptop