Quote:
Originally Posted by JJD1
Tell us more about the application process and training . As I just dont get whats so special .The trains are almost fully automated ?
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I don't know the application process in detail, as after I looked into it further, I decided that it wasn't for me. But I can give you some insight into what's so special...
Yes some tube lines are fairly well automated, except when they're not. So if there's any slight glitch with the train, the track, the signalling, or the communication systems, the automation system drops out and the driver needs to be fully qualified and ready to drive the train manually at a moments notice. If they can't, then you've got an immovable object holding up the entire system until a qualified driver can turn up.
If you're blocking a line that runs 36 trains an hour, with each train holding 1000+ passengers, then even if a replacement driver is only 30 minutes away (which is a really short time in London rush hour traffic), then you're going to have 20,000 people in a crush loaded train either stuck in a tunnel underground, or if they're lucky deposited at some random station and have to find their way to their destination from there.
You've not only got to be a driver, with the skills to stop a train within a tolerance of a foot, from full line speed to a halt, using a braking system that would be condemned as useless and dangerous if it was fitted to a road vehicle (you only have three possible braking rates to use, and one of them will make all the passengers fall over! and it's incapable of stopping within the distance you can see ahead). You also have to be a trained electrician and mechanic, who knows every system on the train they're driving and can quickly find and fix faults on a train that might be over 40 years old (again there's no time to wait for an engineer to turn up and fix it with thousands of passengers stuck in tunnels).
You also need to know every bit of the track, and be able to keep full concentration on what is an extremely boring and repetitive job, as if you miss just one repeater signal at caution (that might be on a bend so you only have a very short time to observe it), then you won't have the braking ability to stop at the next one at danger and will run into the back of the train in front, and 2000 passengers could be injured or killed.
You've also got to be prepared for those who may attempt to end their lives in front of your train, and the emotional scarring that you may feel for the rest of your life if it happens to you. Around one in three tube drivers have a 'one under' in their careers, and many of them struggle to get over it.
If you're capable of all that, can live in London on a supermarket checkout workers salary while you are training, will be happy working unsociable shifts and are willing to move house so you're close enough to the tube depot that you are assigned to, so that you can get to work when there's no public transport available (and nowhere to park a car) for an eventual salary of ~£50k, then you're welcome to it.
And finally, you've also got to put up with all the jibes from clueless people who think that all you need to do is just sit there and press buttons to open the doors all day.
