Does anyone know how British train crews are paid? We are all familiar here with pay by "days" of mileage. That is, a certain number of minimum miles constitutes a day's pay, and the pay is accumulated either at the completion of those miles or at the end of the 12 hour maximum work day. How are British engine crews paid, by mileage or by hours?

I would like to add a question. Do the Brits have a hours of service law similar to ours?

John Bohon

Good question - I live in the UK and although I know overall salaries I don't know how it's worked out. There are rules regarding duty hours though.

I have come rather late to this but I will respond in case it is of use.

Freight trains are single manned by a driver (in some companies the title is "train manager". Their pay is salary based at management rates. I do not know current rates of pay but EWS used to be around £25000 per annum, Freightliner and GBRF more - in excess of £30000. In the management pay structure overtime is payed at time and a quarter after the first 20 hours of overtime (per quarter year). Before I retired from the Freightliner company many drivers were struggling to avoid paying 40% tax which now starts at about £47000 or so (22% below this).

Hours of service.

Only in an emergency can operational staff work more than 12 hours on duty and if they do exceed this they have to be relieved as soon as arrangements can be made. For drivers there is a limit of 11 hours driving per duty.

I should have stated that the salary amounts were for 2001, the year I finished. Add about £4000 to £6000 p.a. for inflation increases since then.

Except for one man crews it sounds like our pay structures and hours of service are similar. How many miles would be in your average crew district? Do crews commonly work to near the 12 hour limit or are the runs short enough to make that somewhat rare?

Thanks in advance.

John Bohon