Is keeping things moving ‘Your Thing’?
We are looking for motivated people to join our team as a Depot Driver. You’ll play an integral part of our day to day, safe operations to ensure our customers get the best possible service, through ensuring our trains leave the TrainCare Centre on time.
This recruitment is for our on hold pool. To manage expectations, if you are successful your application could be held on our files for up to 9 months, and will be considered for any upcoming vacancies.
Connecting millions of people and communities across the North is our mission. With 2,500 trains a day, we connect people to jobs, friends, family, and the wonders of the North.
We're improving rail travel, enhancing the experience on board and at stations. Customers are at the heart of our business as we improve performance and create a better way to go.
We're driving economic value and sustainable growth for the North and its people. Our commitment to the environment means reducing our impact and enhancing the world around us.
Make a difference. Make it last. Make it yours. Make it easy. Make it happen. These are our values.
Ready to make them yours? Join us on this journey.
About the role:
As a Depot Driver, you will play a vital role within our TrainCare Centres to shunt and move trains within our boundaries and keep things moving 24/7. It will be down to you to ensure that trains are prepped and ready to go back into customer service in a timely manner and help to minimise delays.
It’s about working on our TrainCare Centres as safely and efficiently as possible. Our trains and TrainCare Centres operate 7 days a week, you need to be flexible enough to deal with the ever-changing demands. It’s vital that you’re adaptable and that you live within a 45-minute drive of our TrainCare Centre.
Key responsibilities:
This is a varied and challenging role, but here is a taste of what your day-to-day activities could include:
To keep things moving, you’ll drive and shunt the trains around the TrainCare Centre, as required
Fueling our trains to ensure they are ready to go into service each day
You’ll assist in replenishing water tanks
You’ll ensure compliance with all working instructions, standards and rules and regulations
Train Preparation is important, to ensure they are ready to go back into customer service on time
All the while, operating in a safety and time critical environment.
About you:
We expect you to be reliable, and hardworking and you must be willing to work outside, as well as on board our trains, throughout the year. What’s really important is an ability to stay calm and to think on your feet in sometimes difficult situations.
You don’t need previous driving experience as our training course offers all the training you need. You’ll spend your first 5-8 weeks taking part in classroom based learning in either Leeds or Manchester, followed by up to 6 months training within our TrainCare Centres with our full support as you develop your skills. We’ll expect 100% commitment from you on this rewarding yet demanding programme, but our Training Team will be with you all the way when it comes to ongoing assessments and knowledge checks
We’re also looking for the following:
Excellent communication skills
Confidence to build relationships with a wide variety of people and teams
The ability to prioritise and flexible when necessary
You’ll have excellent decision making and be adaptable
An ability to work to instructions and rules and regulations
And don’t forget that our selection process includes a safety critical medical assessment, that covers general health, ECG, vision, hearing, colour vision and drugs and alcohol testing, so there are some essential requirements for you to meet:
Live within 45-minute car journey from the TrainCare Centre you work from.
Not have defective colour vision.
Obtain a pass to an enhanced level on the Train Driver Psychometric Assessments, which are valid for 5 years*
Commit to working early, late and weekend shifts – without relying on public transport.
* We have our own Psychometric Assessment Centre, to enable you to take the Train Driver Psychometric Assessment - providing you have not previously failed them on two occasions or taken them within the last 6 months.
Our Benefits:
Because we value our people and reward hard work, we’ve created a benefits package that we think you’ll love. So, you’ll be able to make the most of:
Opportunities to progress and grow - including comprehensive training schemes and a range of online learning courses
Free Travel on Northern services - everyone who works at Northern, plus their partners/spouses and dependents, can travel for free right across our full network of services. *Certain eligibility criteria will apply.
75% discount with other Train Operating Companies - after 2 years with us, you’ll also get discounted travel on many other rail services in the UK and Europe.
Defined Benefit Pension Scheme - you’ll rarely find a pension as good as a Northern pension, and we top up your pension with a generous 1.5 times your contribution.
A generous holiday entitlement - our holiday entitlements can help you feel like you can get away too.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to
Disability Confident.
