CAREER ON THE FAST TRACK
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FROM railways and buses to airlines and shipping, the UK’s transport sector employs around one million people and is always in need of the right people to keep things moving.
Vita Barnes, 29, from York, is right at the heart of it all after following her dream to become a train driver.
What are you doing day-to-day?
I’m a trainee train driver with TransPennine Express, and I’m completing an apprenticeship at the same time.
At the moment we are doing classroom-based learning alongside practical work on a train simulator in order to prepare for the next stage, which will be actually driving trains.
Understandably the job requires a lot of tuition as it is highly safety critical, and therefore you need a thorough understanding of rules and regulations.
Day to day driving will include a variety of things, but the main priority is getting customers to their destination safely.
I will also need to know how to tackle out-of-the-ordinary situations when they crop up.
When did you start?
I only started the apprenticeship in February. We have around six more weeks of learning and then we will be starting our practical handling, which means a minimum of 250 hours of driving before qualifying as a train driver.
There are nine people in my group including me, and we cover quite a range of ages.
When did you join TransPennine?
I joined in May 2017 as a conductor, and then went on to work in the resources department before starting this.
Before that I worked in retail after leaving university – I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
I did that for four years and then I felt like it was time for a change and to think about what I really wanted to do as a career.
I spent hours looking through various job sites before my mum came across the conductor vacancy and sent me a link.
After reading the job description
I thought it sounded like something I would enjoy so I went for it, and I’ve never looked back!
What made you decide to become a driver?
From day one here that was always my ambition. Growing up it’s something I would never really have considered, just because I didn’t know anything about the railway.
But I would encourage anyone to go for it. It can be challenging, there’s no doubt about that, but equally the work can be really rewarding.
The transition was fairly easy for me as I already had experience on the trains but there is still a lot for me to learn. The group of apprentices
I’m with are great, we all support each other through the course which makes a huge difference to the whole experience.
What do you love about it?
The railway is like a big family and to me that’s the best part of it.
You get to work with some great people on a day-to-day basis.
From conductors to customer hosts and gateline staff, everyone is supportive of each other in this business.
I haven’t started my driving hours yet, but the training so far has been really good.
The time I have spent on the train simulator has been fun, although it can certainly be stressful when things go wrong.
The railway is like a big family and everyone is so supportive of each other