The government has announced plans for a new HS2 stage. This will allow rail services of up to 250mph, to operate on routes such as Crewe to Manchester, the West Midlands to Leeds.

New HS2 Stage: Predictions

Currently, the line is forecast to open in 2033. The result of this is projected to double the number of services running between cities such as Manchester and Birmingham. The government have listened to customer complaints regarding the limited number of seats available on today’s trains, and therefore the new service will increase this number to almost 15,000 extra seats. This is a huge figure compared to today, which sits at around 5000. Furthermore, it is estimated that almost an hour of time will be spent on long distance journeys. Almost 300,000 people more will be able to use the services per day, tripling the number of seats from Euston in the rush hour.

Finally, it is projected that the new HS2 stage will bring about a significant boost to employment, with over 25,000 jobs opening up in construction, and another 75,000 jobs (including apprenticeships) opening elsewhere. This will contribute almost 100,000 new positions, an enormous figure!

Although the new HS2 stage is not scheduled for quite some time, plans are already afoot to start preparing for the project. The Transport Secretary has announced a £900 million contract award for anyone who can take on the job. The contract has been taken up by:

• The Costain Group and Shanska Construction UK
• Morgan Sindall, BAM Nuttall and Ferrovial Agroman
• Laing O’Rourke Construction and J Murphy & Sons

Along with those mentioned, the new high speed trains will also serve locations such as Glasgow, Stafford, Preston, Wigan, Carlisle, Darlington, Durham, Liverpool and Edinburgh. The government originally laid out plans for the new HS2 stage in 2013, but the plans have undergone numerous setbacks. Now, it seems, they are finally getting somewhere.

In the past 2 weeks, more than 15,000 people applied for train driver jobs, in a recruitment drive launched by Virgin. This was the biggest Virgin Trains recruitment campaign on their East Coast route since the 1980s! The campaign was an enormous success, it showed conclusively that train driving jobs are now more popular than ever before.

In total, there were 78 train driving jobs advertised by Virgin. Virgin have revealed that they received a staggering 200 applications for every vacancy! In part, this was down to the salaries on offer; with qualified drivers being estimated to make up to £60,000. However, it’s also down to the fact that there remains a fascination amongst the working public with trains. Train operating companies frequently receive similar numbers of applications, even those smaller than Virgin. This means that recruitment drives are very short and far between. Often, companies will open their application process mid-week, and then close it before the weekend starts. This rules out all but the most dedicated of candidates. The sheer volume of applications means that if TOCs did keep job postings open at ‘peak times’, they would receive more applications than they could ever process. On this basis, the majority of train driver job openings are treated on a first-come first-serve basis. They’ll assess the quality of all their applications, but once the closing date has passed then that’s it.

In order to apply for a job, candidates had to meet certain Virgin Trains recruitment criteria. These included:

• Being over the age of 21
• Willing to relocate to within an hour from one of the depots.

New drivers for Virgin will work on brand new Azuma trains, which are set to be launched in 2018. Successful candidates will start their training programme in January, and work in depots across the country. However, it won’t be easy to get the job. Along with classroom based learning, assessment centres and exercises, drivers will need to prove themselves in critical areas such as track safety, operational risks and emergency scenarios. Along with all this, route learning is essential. The new Azuma trains will be the most advanced trains in the country, meaning that the new drivers have extra skills to learn.