What is the train driver medical?

There is a medical. Eyesight, hearing, and general fitness are part of it. It exists because the job is safety-critical, not because a recruiter wants to catch you out. Standards are set for that, not for a blog to paraphrase, and not for a forum to vote on.

Will they fail you? Sometimes, if you do not meet the standard. Often the honest work is declaring what you take and what you already know, then letting occupational health decide. Hiding a condition is a worse idea than the thing you are hiding.

What they are looking at

• Eyesight, including whether glasses or contact lenses get you to the standard. Colour vision is a separate, stricter question.
• Hearing, and whether you can do the job with or without aids under their rules.
• General fitness, blood pressure, and anything that would make a long, dull, safety-critical shift unsafe.

Medication counts. So does a condition you already manage well. Ask occupational health or your GP before you treat a thread as a diagnosis. Take the glasses you actually wear. Do not sit it as a test of how well you can squint.

The medical is not the psychometric day

Passing a medical does not mark vigilance. Failing to mention a drug does not get you a second attempt on Group Bourdon. Some centres put the medical on the same day as the tests. Some split them. Read your invite.

If the medical is not an obvious no, practise the timed battery so the scarce attempt is not spent on surprise. For eyesight and colour blindness in more detail, that is a separate note.