We went down to Northern’s train driver academy to find out what it’s like for would-be drivers – with vacancies coming up across the north. Just a stone’s throw away from Leeds’ busy Headrow is Northern’s training academy. What goes on here is usually pretty secretive – and trainers are coy about revealing any details.
Tests are designed to assess candidates’ perception, memory, and other aspects of their psychology. The whole process is secretive. The tests we were given are based on the real ones – but have been made different in ways we are not told.
In this attention test, candidates had to count the occurences of a certain letter - all against the clock (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest) Candidates have to go through an attention test, where trainees have to spot anomalies in patterns of data, followed by tests of memory, as well as tests in trainability, vigilance, perception, hand co-ordination, situational judgment, and finally a structured interview. In one such test, the ATAVT perception test, images of traffic quickly flash up on the screen, with test takers having to choose what they saw. Sign up to our newsletters to get the latest stories sent straight to your inbox.
Every application is looked at by a person and manually sifted before a decision is made. Anyone who is unsuccessful at the process only gets one extra chance to do it – after that, it’s game over. When I ask for statistics on the pass rates on different tests, and which is the .