What shifts do train drivers work?

Earlies, lates, nights, and weekends. Rest days sit in a pattern that does not care it is a Saturday or a school play. The exact roster belongs to that operator and that depot. The shape does not: this is shift work, not a 9 to 5 with the odd late running.

If you are asking whether the job is for you, answer the roster first. The psychometric tests come after that honesty, not instead of it.

What the week actually looks like

• Starts before most people are up, or finishes after most people are in bed. Sometimes both in the same fortnight.
• Nights exist. So do Sundays. Unsocial hours are how some experienced drivers reach the higher pay conversations.
• Turnaround is short. Fatigue is a safety issue, which is why the medical and the tests care about staying accurate when it is dull.

Diagrams move. A blog that quotes one depot's 2022 link as if it were national policy is selling a feeling. Ask the recruiter what that vacancy actually covers. Spare cover and disruption will still eat a rest day now and then.

The roster is not the assessment

Wanting nights, or being willing to do them, will not mark Group Bourdon. You still apply, sit the timed battery, then interview and medical. Training is commonly the better part of a year, on a trainee roster, before you are signed off.

If the shifts still sound like a life you can hold, practise the tests. That is the door. The roster is what is on the other side.