It’s a great feeling just before you’d decide to do something with your life, especially when you are just starting out in your career.
You flinch. You feel uneasy. You experience that feeling of “unknown”. Butterflies flutter in your stomach and your gut seems to be pulled in different directions.
Deciding the right path to take with your career is a huge responsibility. You’d not have it easy, but with the right information, guidance, and a plan, your chances of making it big are bigger.
To become a train conductor in the U.K, you’d need what we call the “chops” – the right education, skills, and the propensity to learn (before you apply, and on the job).
According to the National Careers Service, you’d be looking at making about £17,000+ per year, putting in roughly 35 to 37 hours per week.
That’s how much an average train conductor makes in the U.K. Our endeavor at Trainee Train Conductor is to help you make much more than that.
What does a Train Conductor Do really?
Railways are an important national service connecting people, goods, and commercial services across the nation. Train conductors help this national lifeline run smooth.
Train conductors plan and issue tickets to passengers, they make sure that passengers have a delightful, easy, and a pleasant ride, and they help answer queries about travel routes, arrival/departure times, and connecting services between trains or routes.
What do you need to Succeed As a Train Conductor?
To start with you, you’d need an intense passion to succeed. Beyond that, you’d have to love working with the general public, have a tendency to walk the extra mile, develop a keenness to help people, be great at customer support, and have your head above the shoulders.
Did we mention that you’d also have to think on your feet, possess excellent memory, and have those maps and routes burned into your head?
Is working as a Train Conductor hard?
Well, what job isn’t? Your job as a Train Conductor is hard or is easy and that depends on how you take it.
Hint: it’s hard if you treat it as a job. It’s easy if you love what you do.
Your working hours are much like any other job in the U.K where you’d put in an average of 30-40 hours per week. You’d possibly have shift systems, which could mean that you’d be working on early mornings, late nights, and also weekends.
What Does a Train Conductor in the U.K Make?
You get what you put in. We believe that every job is an opportunity for prime candidates to shine through.
On an average trainee train conductors make anywhere from £12,000 to £15,000 per year. Upon qualification and complete induction, you’d make anywhere from £17,000 to £22,000 per year.
When you move up the ranks to a Senior Train Conductor, you’d net about £25,000+ per year.
These figures aren’t cast in stone. As we like to say,
“money follows the worthy”.
Ok, I am sold. What does it take to start training as a Train Conductor?
We are glad you asked. The usual (and often hard) way is to hustle your way around to the long-winding lines of tracks and trains to directly apply to Railways and Train Operating Companies (TOC).
The more practical, efficient, and smoother way is to join us as a trainee Train Conductor, and we’ll work hard together to see to it that you get the job.
