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Rail Crew Tests

Southeastern conductor assessment

London to Kent and East Sussex

Southeastern is the clearest exception to the usual pattern, and the one operator that tells you outright it will help you prepare: its candidate pack says that for every assessment you sit, it sends practice material or hints and tips beforehand. The grade is advertised as Trainee Train Conductor and runs as a conductor apprenticeship.

The face-to-face stage is described by Southeastern as pen-and-paper tests and possibly a role-play scenario, at its own recruitment and training centre. Ahead of that now sits an online assessment of interactive tasks measuring behaviour — a stage that did not exist when most of the applicant accounts about Southeastern were written.

How much we know

This page rests on a single detailed account of the process. Treat it as a guide to what to expect, not a statement of what you will sit.

In order

The Southeastern selection stages

This is not an official Southeastern process description. Your invitation letter is the authority for your own.

  1. 01Online application
  2. 02Online assessment — a series of interactive tasks measuring behaviour
  3. 03Face-to-face assessment at Southeastern’s recruitment and training centre — pen-and-paper tests, and possibly a role-play scenario
  4. 04Competency-based interview, usually face to face, of an hour to an hour and a half
  5. 05Safety-critical medical covering vision, hearing and drug and alcohol screening
  6. 06Talent pool, worked longest-waiting-first until a local vacancy arises

Detail

Worth knowing about Southeastern

Practice

What to practise for Southeastern

Matched to the stages above. Every demo is free and needs no account.

What we do not cover

  • The concentration test is not practised on this site. Nor is the role play itself, which cannot be reproduced online — the customer service exercise here trains the shape of a good response instead.

Every process on this list ends in a competency interview. Our guide to the interview and the role play covers the competencies operators assess and how to structure an answer, and the process guide sets out every stage across the sector.

Before you apply elsewhere

Not every operator has an on-board grade

If you are comparing operators, these run driver-only services and have no conductor or guard job to apply for:

c2c
Driver-only operation on the London, Tilbury and Southend route. No conductor or guard grade.
Elizabeth line
Driver-only operation. The concession changed hands in May 2025 and is now run by GTS Rail Operations; its frontline grades are customer and revenue roles, not a conductor grade.
London Overground
Driver-only. The concession passed to First Rail London in May 2026, but the brand and the six named lines are unchanged, and the frontline grades are station and revenue roles.
Heathrow Express
Driver-only, and run by GWR under a management contract, so its train crew hiring goes through GWR rather than Heathrow Express itself.
Thameslink and Great Northern
No conductor or guard grade — these run driver-only. Both do advertise a Passenger Host grade, which is revenue, customer and security work without door or dispatch duties. Southern, in the same group, is different — see its page.
Freight operators
Freight trains have not carried guards since single-manning in the 1980s. Note the naming trap: GB Railfreight advertises “Train Manager” and “Trainee Train Manager” vacancies that are train driver roles, and asks for a driver psychometric pass within the last five years.

Compare

Other operators that employ on-board crew

Compiled from publicly posted applicant accounts and operator job adverts, September 2026. Processes change without notice — your invitation letter is the only authority on what you will sit. Southeastern’s own candidate pack sets out the stages but names no individual test; the three-exercise description comes from applicant accounts, some of which predate the current online stage.