Greater Anglia - Trainee Mainline/Depot Driver - Various (12/04/24)

[L33]

I’m pleased to share that I have successfully passed my Driver Manager Interview (DMI)! I wanted to provide a timeline of my application process to help others who may be going through the same journey.
• 22/04/2024 – Submitted my application for Trainee Mainline Driver – Liverpool Street (West Anglia) and completed the SJT test.
• 02/05/2024 – Received an email confirming I had passed the SJT.
• 01/11/2024 – Received an invitation to book my Stage 1 assessment.
• 14/11/2024 – Completed Stage 1.
• 19/11/2024 – Received confirmation that I had passed Stage 1 and, on the same day, was invited to book Stage 2.
• 27/11/2024 – Completed Stage 2.
• 04/12/2024 – Received confirmation that I had passed Stage 2 and was informed that I would be contacted with DMI dates.
• 16/01/2025 – Received an invitation to book my DMI.
• 29/01/2025 – Completed my DMI.
• 31/01/2025 – Received a call confirming that I had been successful!
• Booked for a medical and have been told my start date will likely be late March or early April.

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone on this forum for all the valuable information and advice. The insights shared here have been incredibly helpful.

For those still in the process—stay determined, prepare well, and best of luck!

Congratulations, ive completed stage 2 and mmi still waiting for the mmi results. will be week tomorrow since I done it so feeling very tense at the moment

 

[L33]

I've passed the second stage and mmi, just wanted to thank everyone on here for the advise. Still got the dmi to do but I'm just ecstatic I passed all the test first time round and dint have to do it again for at least 5 years regardless off the dmi.

 

[dk1]

ASLEF have sanctioned a new Rest Day Working agreement with GA from 29th March. Overtime rates for RDW and Sundays will rise substantially from between 1.15-1.25 to 1.70-1.75 per hour depending on whether you are on Anglia, Great Eastern or West Anglia agreements.

There is also a commitment to further recruit at least 100 new drivers/depot drivers over the next financial year.

All in all an excellent result with pay negotiations also ongoing for next month.

 

[jammmmmsssssss]

ASLEF have sanctioned a new Rest Day Working agreement with GA from 29th March. Overtime rates for RDW and Sundays will rise substantially from between 1.15-1.25 to 1.70-1.75 per hour depending on whether you are on Anglia, Great Eastern or West Anglia agreements.

There is also a commitment to further recruit at least 100 new drivers/depot drivers over the next financial year.

All in all an excellent result with pay negotiations also ongoing for next month.

They definitely need a few more drivers on the west

 

[Intercitybruce]

Hi All, does anybody know what to expect on day 1 of the assesment day ?

I’ve had an invite for the 30th anyone else progressed ?

 

[Adubbaya]

Hi All, does anybody know what to expect on day 1 of the assesment day ?

I’ve had an invite for the 30th anyone else progressed ?

Hi

You’ll find loads of other info on the forum on this, but the ones I remember from when I did mine a couple of years ago:

- Group Bourdon - you’ll have a few sections with lots of rows of grouped dots (grouped in threes, fours and fives). You have to skim through each line marking out the ones that show four dots. From what I’ve heard, accuracy is more important than the number of lines you get through.

- You’ll be given an article or a few paragraphs about a subject. You’ll get time to read and take in the information, and will then have this taken away and will have to answer questions on the article.

- You’ll be given two sheets, one showing a sheet that displays a control panel, and the other a sheet that gives context around how to fault find. You’ll then be given a few faults and will have to provide fault codes for each.

- Similar to the above, you’ll be given some different gauges. I’ll be honest, I can really remember what you had to do on this one (sorry haha!!)

- You’ll be given a sheet showing different telephone numbers and symbols against each for different services. You’ll be asked to circle certain services in a particular area, but they will also be playing a sequence of beeps that you will need to count and make a note of how many you counted, while you’re doing the circling…

There may be a few others that I’ve forgotten for stage 1, but they might have sent you some practice docs so worth having a look through that. If not, there’s a lot you can get on How2Become (paid for unfortunately but inexpensive) that will really help.

As with any test/assessment, it so, so important to practice as much as you can beforehand. I would say getting an understanding of group bourdon and how to identify the different groups of dots is really important - for me it was probably the one that required the most practice!!

In the day itself, you’ll all be called into one of the training rooms and will complete each section. You’ll then be asked to wait while they’re marked and people will then be told whether they’ve passed each section. Goes without saying, if you don’t pass a section, you won’t progress onto the next.

Hope this helps, and I wish you luck for your assessments on the 30th!!!

 

[Intercitybruce]

Hi

You’ll find loads of other info on the forum on this, but the ones I remember from when I did mine a couple of years ago:

- Group Bourdon - you’ll have a few sections with lots of rows of grouped dots (grouped in threes, fours and fives). You have to skim through each line marking out the ones that show four dots. From what I’ve heard, accuracy is more important than the number of lines you get through.

- You’ll be given an article or a few paragraphs about a subject. You’ll get time to read and take in the information, and will then have this taken away and will have to answer questions on the article.

- You’ll be given two sheets, one showing a sheet that displays a control panel, and the other a sheet that gives context around how to fault find. You’ll then be given a few faults and will have to provide fault codes for each.

- Similar to the above, you’ll be given some different gauges. I’ll be honest, I can really remember what you had to do on this one (sorry haha!!)

- You’ll be given a sheet showing different telephone numbers and symbols against each for different services. You’ll be asked to circle certain services in a particular area, but they will also be playing a sequence of beeps that you will need to count and make a note of how many you counted, while you’re doing the circling…

There may be a few others that I’ve forgotten for stage 1, but they might have sent you some practice docs so worth having a look through that. If not, there’s a lot you can get on How2Become (paid for unfortunately but inexpensive) that will really help.

As with any test/assessment, it so, so important to practice as much as you can beforehand. I would say getting an understanding of group bourdon and how to identify the different groups of dots is really important - for me it was probably the one that required the most practice!!

In the day itself, you’ll all be called into one of the training rooms and will complete each section. You’ll then be asked to wait while they’re marked and people will then be told whether they’ve passed each section. Goes without saying, if you don’t pass a section, you won’t progress onto the next.

Hope this helps, and I wish you luck for your assessments on the 30th!!!

Hi, thank you so much for the detailed information I really appreciate it.

I’ve been looking at the pack they send over, and it’s funny as they make you practice on letters for the Scaat test but I was guessing they would give you the dots on the day.

Thanks again for the information