A new report from Policy Exchange – “Full Steam Ahead: Delivering an Abundance of Train Drivers” sets out how a mass recruitment campaign, modelled on the successful HGV Driver Bootcamp programme, could solve the UK’s shortage of train drivers and fix Britain’s railways.  

The report exposes how the shortage of train drivers strengthens the power of the trade unions by using the threat of overtime bans to cause delays and cancellations. Policy Exchange finds that Germany’s national rail network handles 38 per cent more passenger kilometres than Britain’s – but has 91 per cent more train drivers.  

This shortage – coupled with a standard four-day working week – means the UK’s railways need large amounts of driver overtime for a full service. Because overtime is voluntary, drivers can refuse it at short notice, causing massive disruption without needing to strike, or ballot, or even lose significant amounts of money.

The report proposes that:

1. The current 18-month long driver training course should be reviewed by the Department for Transport with a goal of halving the course length through a dramatic reduction of time spent route learning, and on technical knowledge like Traction Theory.
2. The Government should use the National Skills Fund to award contracts for the creation of Train Drivers Academies across the country. These contracts should be awarded to consortiums of TOCs, recruiters, and qualified drivers. Government funding must be contingent on TOCs committing to provide the practical handling training and to employ all drivers who pass.

3. The additional 2,000 drivers should be recruited on the same salaries and hours as at present, but on more flexible contracts which make running the service easier (for instance, with Sunday being part of the normal four-day week.)

4. Train Operating Companies should carry out revised risk assessments of the routes their drivers work on. They should consider the technological assistance drivers receive from tablets or control panels and edit route learning requirements as informed by this. Where a driver receives detailed information about a route from the control panel on a train, they should not be required to memorise this information. 

5. Competency on a route currently expires after just six months to a year of not driving it. This should be increased to two years.

6. The minimum age requirements for train drivers should be reduced from 20 to 18 years.