London Banter - View Single Post - There's one line that won't be short of drivers...

Graeme Wall · December 8th 20, 09:16 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

On 08/12/2020 20:22, Recliner wrote:
Sam Wilson wrote:
Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 10:55:26 on Tue, 8 Dec
2020, remarked:
On Tue, 8 Dec 2020 09:21:22 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:29:39 on Tue, 8 Dec
2020, remarked:
Is being a crossrail driver harder or does it pay significantly less than
elsewhere? Thats a genuine question, I have no idea.

One obvious feature (that also applies to HEx, C2C and Island Line) is a
relatively limited amount of route and traction knowledge required.

Thats probably a bonus - less learning.

See harder/easier.

On the other hand, it's going to be pretty boring (like the Victoria
Line or Waterloo and City).

Most of its above ground. But I suspect any driving job gets boring after
a while regardless of the vehicle, even flying a plane.

It's probably more boring flying a commuter plane within a hundred mile
radius of somewhere like Dallas or Atlanta, than being on long haul
transatlantic flights to numerous destinations in Europe and the Far
East.

I think long distance flying is much more boring for the pilots. It's the
take-offs and landings that make the job interesting; cruising is very
boring. And on ultra long haul flights, the four pilots only get a single
take-off or landing in a week-long return trip. That's not even enough to
maintain their proficiency ratings.

There is (or was) a well known meme[1] that describes long distance flying
as 8 hours of absolute boredom with 2 miniutes of panic at either end.

Sam

[1] or whatever we used to call what we now call memes

I think there's up to an hour of interesting or varied work at each end of
the flight, with at least the take-off hand flown. The hours in the middle
are largely on auto-pilot, with occasional ATC contact.

I know an ex BA pilot who always preferred the European routes rather
than Transatlantic as the former had more real flying and he got to go
home most nights!

--
Graeme Wall
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