Irish Rail Drivers

verfold

Hi, new to this forum so apologies if this is posted in wrong area...

I am a qualified driver in the UK on intercity stuff, desperate to relocate to Ireland, preferably Dublin. Having no luck at all, and I know IR are not exactly recruiting , but does anyone have any hints or tips?

I have heard of IR taking on qualified UK drivers in the past so am hoping there is a slim chance?

Any advice would be greatfuly received.....

corktina

the story I hear is it's a closed shop, you have to be born into the Clan to get in. Try NIR perhaps? or LUAS?

purplepanda

Friend of mine was a London Tube train driver, now drives on the DART, when he moved to Dublin about 15 years ago, he had to work as a Guard for a year or so until he could be trained to drive DART's.

Procedures might have changed since those days?

Stella Virgo

verfold wrote: »

Hi, new to this forum so apologies if this is posted in wrong area...

I am a qualified driver in the UK on intercity stuff, desperate to relocate to Ireland, preferably Dublin. Having no luck at all, and I know IR are not exactly recruiting , but does anyone have any hints or tips?

I have heard of IR taking on qualified UK drivers in the past so am hoping there is a slim chance?

Any advice would be gratefully received.....

forget it ,not a hope in hell, closed shop,father to son/friend/cousin.bosses son...................

AlekSmart

Stella Virgo wrote: »

Forget it ,not a hope in hell, closed shop,father to son/friend/cousin.bosses son...................

Good sound advice there Verfold...up to you whether you take heed of it or not....:rolleyes:

If you decide to ignore it,then Purplepanda.s response may provide some clues as to an alternative viewpoint.

IR do not directly recruit to the Loco Driver grade,it is all done through a progression from within,not as frequent as in the past,however there are encouraging signs that another appointment drive is in the offing.

I would,for sure,send a (Comprehensive) CV to the Irish Rail Human Resources Dept,making sure to particularly emphasise your currency in any added Safety Related tickets...No harm in marketing yourself !

OR...as Stella Virgo knows so well....the glass is half empty so don't bother....;)

Your choice !!

verfold

Absolutely, I refuse to believe it could be a completley closed shop. After all surely it would make excellent economic sense for IR to want to employ fully qualified drivers with excellent safety/attendence records? This would potentially save a fortune in training costs....

Thanks for the replies...

bikeman1

I know a guy who has moved from the UK as a driver and thought he would get in with his experience, however 4 years later still no luck. This despite trying desperately with IE and even going for the who you know.

There is a recruitment ban on IE, so you won't even get a foot in the door.

Then even if you do, in Ireland and especially in IE you need to know someone on the inside to put a good word for you.

I would advise you not to go for it. It may change in a few years, but not at the moment.

Losty Dublin

verfold wrote: »

Absolutely, I refuse to believe it could be a completley closed shop. After all surely it would make excellent economic sense for IR to want to employ fully qualified drivers with excellent safety/attendence records? This would potentially save a fortune in training costs....

Thanks for the replies...

As the other posters have said, Irish Rail only recruit and train drivers from within. Given that you are a driver, you will appreciate that you will be learning from scratch how to drive and troubleshoot several classes of rolling stock, a new rule book and to get new route knowledge's. All of this takes time so even if they allowed you to apply from new as a driver, you would still have to learn from scratch.

verfold

Thanks, all good points.

However, as some of you may be aware, over the next couple of years, we are all being issued with European train drivers licences, which in theory should allow qualified drivers to move around Europe more freely.

I wonder what impact this may have on future IE recruitment???

corktina

None I'd say, you'd still have to re-learn the ropes. Very little would be the same as your current job when you think about it. Different traction, different routes, different job structure, different signalling etc

whisky_galore

A driver mate of mine in a uk TOC was looking into relocating to Ireland a number of years ago, but he would have to faff around the platform for a bit first, and he wouldn't have all the benefits he'd get in Irish Rail compared to where he was. So he stayed put.

Add to that mix the current recruitment freeze. So yeah, doesn't look promising. If you're still game, I'd fire in a CV anyway even if it will fall behind the filing cabinet. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Fred Swanson

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whisky_galore

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Stamps are so last century, send it in via the auld interweb.

yew_tree

Dad works for Irish Rail for over 35 years...(not a driver) and tried to get me in a few years ago and couldn't, its a closed shop and they have not hired for years. Retiring staff are not being replaced etc and promotion is done from within.

Hilly Bill

corktina wrote: »

the story I hear is it's a closed shop, you have to be born into the Clan to get in. Try NIR perhaps? or LUAS?

Dont believe those fairy stories Tina .

Hilly Bill

Stella Virgo wrote: »

forget it ,not a hope in hell, closed shop,father to son/friend/cousin.bosses son...................

Not true. Plenty of people with no relations and from different countries work there and all eligible to apply to be a driver when the vacancies pop up.

Hilly Bill

whisky_galore wrote: »

Stamps are so last century, send it in via the auld interweb.

Nothing better than handing it in person.

Hilly Bill

yew_tree wrote: »

Dad works for Irish Rail for over 35 years...(not a driver) and tried to get me in a few years ago and couldn't, its a closed shop and they have not hired for years. Retiring staff are not being replaced etc and promotion is done from within.

They hired a load of temporary protection staff for various projects a few years ago and some of them are now train driving or moved to other areas and are now full time . Some were let go once the project was finished. If your Dad worked there for over 35 years then im suprised that he couldnt have got you one of them jobs.
There are lads working there that are only in the company less than 4 years so there is no harm in handing in a CV . If its not in then you cant win etc.
Of course promotion is done from within , they cant promote someone that isnt in the company.

whisky_galore

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Nothing better than handing it in person.

OP is in the uk, should travel over specially just to hand in a cv??:pac:

Hilly Bill

Bring it with him when he relocates .

verfold

Well im in Dublin pretty regularly anyway as all my partners family are here.
If I was to hand a CV in in person, who would you reccomend I hand it too?

corktina

I think you should take a serious look at my earlier suggestion of applying to the LUAS. Ok so it may not be as interesting as CIE but it is an independent company with no recruitment freeze that I know of and you may have a much better chance of getting in there. ALso NIR might be a oossibility

Fred Swanson

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Hilly Bill

verfold wrote: »

Well im in Dublin pretty regularly anyway as all my partners family are here.
If I was to hand a CV in in person, who would you reccomend I hand it too?

Put it for the attention of H/R ICCN . Put in it that you also have an interest in being a level crossing operator to begin with and you may get a foot in as they are always short on crossing operators. Once you are in then you can apply for a drivers job when they come up. It might not be for a while as a course has just finished and the drivers set to be passed out.
Hand it in at the main office on Amiens street. Its the red brick building across from the North Star hotel just before the railway bridge.

Hilly Bill

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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More to Irish Rail than the barriers at Connolly Fred.

Losty Dublin

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Put in it that you also have an interest in being a level crossing operator to begin with and you may get a foot in as they are always short on crossing operators. .

Can't imagine why they are short on gatekeepers, it's such a cushy number

Hilly Bill

They apply to become train drivers or get drafted to fill a gap somewhere else. Gatekeeping is the entry level job and not much uptake on the post from within.

Fred Swanson

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ALS

All this talk of nepotism and closed shop is codswallop ,I applied 5 years ago to join Irish Rail as a driver, I worked on the platform for 2 weeks and then went to Inchicore to train as a driver, I had no relation to anyone in the company ,
In my class there were only 3 out of the 8 trainees with any real experience in the railway and one of these had just relocated as a train driver from the UK with his family.
At the moment there is a recruitment embargo in Irish Rail but they are running short of drivers and pretty soon they will have no choice but to advertise so I would say send in your CV , you have nothing to loose and ignore alot of the doom and gloom that has been written on here as its mostly made up and guesswork.:)

AlekSmart

ALS wrote: »

All this talk of nepotism and closed shop is codswallop ,I applied 5 years ago to join Irish Rail as a driver, I worked on the platform for 2 weeks and then went to Inchicore to train as a driver, I had no relation to anyone in the company ,
In my class there were only 3 out of the 8 trainees with any real experience in the railway and one of these had just relocated as a train driver from the UK with his family.
At the moment there is a recruitment embargo in Irish Rail but they are running short of drivers and pretty soon they will have no choice but to advertise so I would say send in your CV , you have nothing to loose and ignore alot of the doom and gloom that has been written on here as its mostly made up and guesswork.:)

+1 to that ALS.

Anything to do with a CIE Group company seems to bring out the Brothers Grimm in people....whenever I see this ould "Nepotism" guff, I reach for my Face-Palming smiley....only to find somebody in CIE management has stolen it off the Boards page !!!...Conspiracy I tells yiz....:(

verfold

Thanks for some of the encouraging responses...

The nepotism claim is also often levelled at certain Intercity companies here in the UK, and when I joined the railway, I never believed I would be a HST driver, I think alot of it comes from those who dont put in the effort.

Re NIR -do they recruit from the UK then? If I was an NIR driver, would that make me eligible to drive for IR or are the rulebooks / traction completley seperate?

Re LUAS that is also most definitely an option...

corktina

NIR is in the UK....

Losty Dublin

Hilly Bill wrote: »

They apply to become train drivers or get drafted to fill a gap somewhere else. Gatekeeping is the entry level job and not much uptake on the post from within.

I was thinking of all those fun times they have sitting in portacabins in the depths of the night :pac:

Losty Dublin

corktina wrote: »

NIR is in the UK....

NIR is not covered under the normal UK railway legislation; indeed it wasn't covered by any until a few years ago when a seperate act of Westminister was hastily drawn up to cover it. It has it's own recruitment and HR policies and like Irish Rail it doesn't recruit drivers from the general public. The NIR rulebook is shared with Irish Rail but as two seperate companies they have different driver and guard rosters. Both companies supply train crews for the Enterprise; these are rostered on a basis of both Irish Rail and NIR crews working on specific trips who are passed out to work to and from each destination on the line.

As for trying the Luas, it has only openly invited applications for drivers maybe twice in 12 years, once being in 2002 when it had no choice but to take on new drivers. It's unlikely to take on new drivers again until the new extension is ready for testing; that's a couple of years away.

GBOA

NIR has run a couple of competitions for conductors over the last year or so which have resulted in merit lists for positions as they become available. As I understand it, people are taken off the list as vacancies arise, based on location preference stated by successful candidates at the time.

Infini

Atm theres little chance at getting in as theyre trying to gut the staff in the place (in some cases they've taken too many staff out of places they shouldnt have) but I would keep an eye out they might have to recruit some people eventually as they're finding out now that they've cut too much in some places.