Train Driver | Explore Careers

Meet Paige

Paige talks about the skills needed to be a train driver.

1 minute 35 second watch

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Hi, I'm Paige, and I'm a train driver for Southern Rail.

My background has got nothing to do with rail. I have a degree in event management. Completely unrelated. I've also done, most of my background was retail, so I found an opening at Southern and also on the London Underground.

So what I went for first was London Underground. I worked as a CSA for them, which is a customer service assistant, based on the platforms. Then I got an interview for the train driver role here. So went for that. Obviously went through a lot of tests. And then here I am.

Yeah, started about, it’s almost six years ago I actually started and went through about a year and a half of training. So there's a lot to learn. The rulebook is quite extensive. Some of it's day to day stuff. A lot of it is based around when things go wrong. That's where our knowledge really kicks in.

So there’s quite a few skills that I think a train driver needs to be successful, communication being a big one because there's a lot of people throughout the day you need to communicate with effectively. You need to be good at concentrating and being able to hold concentration for like an extended period of time and being able to self motivate yourself to keep on that concentration.

The thing that I love most is the freedom in a sense. Some people might not look at it as freedom, but I like the fact that you kind of go in, you get your work list for the day, and then you go off and just do it.

I find it a job to be proud of. Like that's probably my main thing. I'm quite proud of doing this job and, you know, taking people to work or taking people out for the day, and that just gives me quite a lot of satisfaction. So that's probably the number one thing for me.