Ahoy shipmate. I spoke to HR yesterday Tron and, whilst they could not confirm the start date of the recruiting campaign, they did say that it would be soon and they anticipated it would run for three weeks. When I took up the other matter with them by email last year that we have already discussed, they told me that there would be a campaign in early 2018 and that failing in 2017 would not be a bar to trying again in 2018. Or, in their own words, "TfL run approximately one high volume Train Operator recruitment campaign annually and you would of course be welcome to apply for future campaigns if you meet the required criteria." So, all looking good do far.