Irish Rail Jobs Discussion

Voluntary redundancies eh. That’s a good one!!! I’d love it.

There’s no depot I know of short drivers to cover existing work. My depot is swimming in them. The new CEO is a numbers lady and im told, quite reliably, everything is being looked at regarding recruitment and the only reason the latest campaign went ahead was because it was publicly advertised. I don’t know how true it is, but I trust the source implicitly.

You need to look outside your own depot.

there’s a diesel and dart class starting in the next couple of months. Might be a pause after those?

When is that meant to start?

Just an update, got email. Invited to next stage, wait out for further info in due course

Yeah I hope so too. DART is short staffed, my class is replacing people retiring and the like. Not adding to the shortage of drivers.
desperately need a couple more classes so it’s not running on OT

Made a few enquiries today, and it seems you are right. Only a few more classes starting, and panels filled with later applicants.

It gives me no joy to post what I have posted re:recruitment pause coming, but my source is impeccable. I think people here who are going to put a lot of their free time into practice tests and the like and also take time off work to attend tests deserve to know what’s coming. I feel for anyone who applies in the latest campaign as they may be left hanging a long time on a panel.

Without any evidence to support this statement I would say if you’re hoping to pick up a spot in a diesel driving class and you haven’t done at least a line manager interview I’d say your snookered. As I previously posted I interact with 5 different depots and they are all swimming in drivers. I have no clue about DART driving numbers.

I’ll also say that this could be an expensive mistake for the company. One bad monthin 2016 and my depot lost 3 drivers for various reasons. It took 5 years to replace them.

Mighty grateful for the heads up lads🙏

I think it's a terrible decision. A similar situation happened to our depot in 2020, and it really put a squeeze on the roster. #

Demanding an increase in services, opening new lines, changing rolling stock i'd imagine now is the time to prepare, and that's without drivers changing roles, retirements and long-term absenteeism. This is well above my pay grade, but it's easy to see the results to us on the ground.

A pause on recruitment just means current applicants will be placed on a panel. So it'll just take longer.

The unions represent the workers. Lack of newer drivers just strengthens drivers position when trying to negotiate better conditions.

So you've passed all stages, and just waiting for a call for a class start date? Yeah, you could be waiting longer than usual on the panel now it seems.

Hi lads i applied for the position as a craftworker, I have passed the interview on the 19th of feb, the medical and I have done the SCAAT test ( which was 3 weeks ago ) and I haven't heard anything since so i dont know if i passed or failed that test. Is this normal and is this pause on recruitment across the bored or is it just for drivers?

ya all stages done. Just a waiting game so. 😆 hopefully the massive energy crisis that’s on the horizon doesn’t slow things down.

Considering the training centre can only take 12 at a time over a 6 month period and how slow the recruitment process is Im sure it will be over 5-10 years period but my point was mainly that there will be a constant need for drivers.