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karl_77
Beginner
Joined: Aug 04, 2008
Last Visited: Aug 29, 2008
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8050
Deputy Commissioner
Joined: Feb 19, 2008
Last Visited: Dec 31, 2008
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:23 pm
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Well Sam, it shouldnt be too long!
Good luck mate. 
Phil.
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SniperBob
Station Staff
Joined: Dec 09, 2003
Last Visited: Oct 27, 2008
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:17 pm
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My mate is also in the 8 September intake. Anyone know how many people are in the first class?
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SniperBob
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tsgsjm
Junior Train Controller
Joined: Feb 26, 2007
Last Visited: Jan 10, 2009
Location: Sydney
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:19 am
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| SniperBob wrote: | My mate is also in the 8 September intake. Anyone know how many people are in the first class?
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SniperBob |
There are 12 in each class
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8050
Deputy Commissioner
Joined: Feb 19, 2008
Last Visited: Dec 31, 2008
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:44 am
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| SniperBob wrote: | My mate is also in the 8 September intake. Anyone know how many people are in the first class?
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SniperBob |
Heh heh, guess i'll be meeting him. 
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exVKG
Station Staff
Joined: Sep 23, 2008
Last Visited: Jan 7, 2009
Location: Newcastle
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| exVKG |
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:12 am
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Hey All,
First post here, just joined today.
I'm one of the lucky ones, my class starts 7th October. My brother applied at the same time as me, and as luck would have it, he's in the same class as me!
I'm 35, he's 28... I think!
I'm more than happy to write about my experiences as we go through, if anyone is interested in hearing about it... let me know.
Cheers for now,
Al
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42209
Chief Commissioner
Joined: Jun 18, 2004
Last Visited: Jan 8, 2009
Location: Shambletown
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| 42209 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:30 pm
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Congrats Al! and welcome to Railpage Australia™.
Gee they push you drivers through real quickly, I first applied for Guard back in Feb and was successful yet I dont start till mid next year 
Look forward to hearing your experience!
Cheers,
Anthony.
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exVKG
Station Staff
Joined: Sep 23, 2008
Last Visited: Jan 7, 2009
Location: Newcastle
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| exVKG |
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:37 pm
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As I understand it, these jobs are for suburban (metro) Sydney only.
Does anyone know roughly how long (after training) before I could become qualified on Intercity and then prospectively get starts & finishes out of Newcastle (Broadmeadow?)
I want to commute to Sydney as little as possible...
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tsgsjm
Junior Train Controller
Joined: Feb 26, 2007
Last Visited: Jan 10, 2009
Location: Sydney
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Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:56 am
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| exVKG wrote: | As I understand it, these jobs are for suburban (metro) Sydney only.
Does anyone know roughly how long (after training) before I could become qualified on Intercity and then prospectively get starts & finishes out of Newcastle (Broadmeadow?)
I want to commute to Sydney as little as possible... |
There have been guys transfer over within 12 months of taking up, but I suggest that you had better get used to the idea of commuting.
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FieldShunt74
Chief Commissioner
Joined: Nov 06, 2004
Last Visited: Jan 9, 2009
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| FieldShunt74 |
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Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:16 pm
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| tsgsjm wrote: | | exVKG wrote: | As I understand it, these jobs are for suburban (metro) Sydney only.
Does anyone know roughly how long (after training) before I could become qualified on Intercity and then prospectively get starts & finishes out of Newcastle (Broadmeadow?)
I want to commute to Sydney as little as possible... |
There have been guys transfer over within 12 months of taking up, but I suggest that you had better get used to the idea of commuting. |
They should really tell you this kind of stuff before they take you on. Generally speaking, if you survive all the training and pass all the assessments, and they turn you loose as an ETR driver, you'll be appointed to a depot. That depot will probably be Central, although if there were vacancies at other ETR depots, they may give you the option of starting there. If that did happen, it would be to a depot with a high vacancy/turnover rate, possibly Mortdale, North Sydney, it depends. Anyway, once you're appointed to a depot, you can't transfer out of there for a year, except on compassionate grounds or if there is a depot waiver at another depot.
Compassionate grounds, good luck, you don't see it very often and no one likes a queue jumper. A depot waiver is what they do when they can't fill positions at a depot with ordinary transfers, ie there is no one on the waiting list and a vacancy appears. Under a waiver, anyone can apply to move to that depot, even if they are less than a year in their current depot. The one year wait at a depot applies every time you move, except as above, presumably to stop people from depot surfing and not doing any actual work.
All depot transfers (except on compassionate grounds) are based on seniority. Seniority is, I think, generally determined on when your class graduates. You'll be ranked within your own class by some formula or other. I'm not exactly sure what they use now, test scores, length of service, age, there's some system and you'll be ranked. Every other driver out there also has a seniority date (and number within that date if there's more than one of them). Under equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws, seniority is not favoured (or possibly illegal) for promotions. Transfers to other depots however, are not promotions, as all drivers are considered to be of equal grade. Even driver trainers and principal drivers are still just drivers for transfer purposes. Likewise ETR and Intercity, it's all the same seniority structure.
So, if you're a freshly minted driver and you've just been appointed at Central, you're there for a year, waivers permitting. At the end of that year (from the date of initial appointment), you can put in a transfer request to any (or all?) of the depots. If a vacancy opens at a depot you've applied to transfer to, you'll be offered the position in seniority order. If that's Newcastle (no depot at Broadmeadow), and you're the senior driver on the list to go there, you can accept or reject the transfer. Don't even bother asking where you are on the list for a given depot, they won't tell you.
Reality check time. You're not going to be the only driver who doesn't want to commute several hours each way to work. The more desirable a depot location, the more demand to transfer there and the more seniority you'll need. Newcastle would be running at about eight or ten years at the moment, I'm guessing. It'll vary over time. If they increase the size of a depot or a bunch of drivers retire all at once, the wait will come down. If you get a depot stacked with younger drivers or conditions deteriorate in town and a bunch of more senior drivers decide to head for the out depots, the wait increases.
If you're a CCC, you'd probably want to head out to Hornsby (or even Flemo) and wait there for the big jump to Newcastle. Hornsby could probably be had in two or three years, prevailing conditions considered. You could apply go to the urbans after the first year is up by putting in for Eveleigh. You'd then run to Newcastle, but you'd still start and at Central.
Seniority is a good, transparent system for transfers.
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8050
Deputy Commissioner
Joined: Feb 19, 2008
Last Visited: Dec 31, 2008
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red7489
Station Master
Joined: Dec 20, 2007
Last Visited: Dec 13, 2008
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Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 8:39 pm
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| FieldShunt74 wrote: | | tsgsjm wrote: | | exVKG wrote: | As I understand it, these jobs are for suburban (metro) Sydney only.
Does anyone know roughly how long (after training) before I could become qualified on Intercity and then prospectively get starts & finishes out of Newcastle (Broadmeadow?)
I want to commute to Sydney as little as possible... |
There have been guys transfer over within 12 months of taking up, but I suggest that you had better get used to the idea of commuting. |
They should really tell you this kind of stuff before they take you on. Generally speaking, if you survive all the training and pass all the assessments, and they turn you loose as an ETR driver, you'll be appointed to a depot. That depot will probably be Central, although if there were vacancies at other ETR depots, they may give you the option of starting there. If that did happen, it would be to a depot with a high vacancy/turnover rate, possibly Mortdale, North Sydney, it depends. Anyway, once you're appointed to a depot, you can't transfer out of there for a year, except on compassionate grounds or if there is a depot waiver at another depot. |
Also during your training you will be required to go to all sectors and starting at all different times. For example you could be starting a shift at Mortdale at 2.25am on the Illawara and the only other locations that you can start at generally on there is Cronulla and Waterfall. This is sector 1. Sector 3 you could be starting at Penrith, Blacktown, Richmond, North Sydney and Hornsby Sector 2 it could be Campbelltown, Flemington CS, Liverpool and I think Central is included in this one.
They will only give you a taxi from Berowa to the location and back again. They will allocate you a driver trainer that they have available like someone in my class lived in Wollongong and they had to start at 0348 at Blacktown. During your training you have to go to all sector no buts as you wont complete the course.
I have been told that it will take quite a while to get on the intercities. As a few in my class would like to do so.
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1979
Chief Commissioner
Joined: Jul 17, 2006
Last Visited: Jan 10, 2009
Location: Your Not Getting It That Easy
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:35 am
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Haha, I think all you trainees will be sick of Burwood in the end. I was there for one day yesterday and was sick of it! I think all you drivers were sick of waiting for the lift aswell!
About Intericty it does take a while, my uncle has been waiting for ages (about 8yrs) to get to Gosford.
Hope this helps.
Kaine
Oh Harro.....
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8050
Deputy Commissioner
Joined: Feb 19, 2008
Last Visited: Dec 31, 2008
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:46 pm
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| 1979 wrote: | | Haha, I think all you trainees will be sick of Burwood in the end. I was there for one day yesterday and was sick of it! I think all you drivers were sick of waiting for the lift aswell! |
Its not too bad mate  Hey those lifts are beautiful hey! especially number 1 lift. Its like standing on the end of a turntable when a heavy loco steps on.
Last edited by 8050 on Sat Sep 27, 2008 5:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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1979
Chief Commissioner
Joined: Jul 17, 2006
Last Visited: Jan 10, 2009
Location: Your Not Getting It That Easy
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Will do that once everything gets confirmed
I think you will be in SD12? Maybe.