The Datum Report

Occupation 8231 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Train and tram drivers

Half of full-time train and tram drivers in the UK earn more than £76,327 a year, and half earn less.

Train and tram drivers drive diesel, diesel-electric, electric and steam locomotives that transport passengers and goods on surface and underground railways, and transport passengers in trams.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic requirements. Entrants must pass a series of tests and a medical examination. Age restrictions apply in some areas of work. Good hearing, good eyesight and normal colour vision are required. Off and on-the-job training is provided. NVQs/SVQs are available at level 2.

What the work involves

• checks controls, gauges, brakes and lights before start of journey and studies route, timetable and track information
• checks safety equipment, regulates the heating of passenger compartments and records engine defects or unusual incidents on the journey
• starts train or tram when directed and operates controls to regulate speed
• watches for track hazards, observes signals and temperature, pressure and other gauges
• stops as directed to allow passengers to embark/ disembark
• makes scheduled stops for the loading and unloading of freight and coupling/uncoupling of carriages and tubs
• maintains radio contact with control centre
• may make passenger announcements and controls automatic doors
• may check travel passes, collect fares and deal with passenger queries

Also called

Diesel driver (railways) · Train driver · Train operator · Tram driver · Shunter driver

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for train and tram drivers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 8 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Air transport operatives · Marine and waterways transport operatives · Other drivers and transport operatives n.e.c. · Rail transport operatives