Re: [NSW] Driver shortage?

[Mark Bau <markbau@earthlink.net>]

in article 9b0p6k$n1l$1@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au, Stuart Thyer at
s.thyer@anatomy.unimelb.edu.au wrote on 4/10/01 11:13 PM:

> I suspect they probably had more problems taking from the guards  than from
> the street, it would have been a very limited selection of people in the
> guards grades to choose from, when picking from 'the street' you have a much
> larger range to select from, even after weeding out the real dills. What is
> this alleged talent that you get from being on the inside that an outsider
> can't pick up, after all, you don't see too many nice things said about
> guards by drivers anyway.
> A well run training course should be able to bring any of these people up to
> scratch if they have the right aptitude to start with, it works in other
> states.
> 
> 
> Stuart Thyer
> Photographer
> University of Melbourne


Hear, Hear! 

Australia has always overcomplicated driver training schemes. When I worked
for VR there were some real dills who were drivers that had gone through a 4
or more year training scheme. These dills knew the ins and outs of a
distributing valve but didn't have a clue about train handling or
commonsense.

Having gone through 2 driver training schemes I'm convinced that with a good
training system you can take someone off the street and have an excellent
driver after one year, sparks, 6 months. Of course on big systems like
Melbourne and Sydney gaining track knowledge will extend that.

Mark