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Rail Crew Tests

TransPennine Express conductor assessment

Intercity routes across the North of England and into Scotland

TransPennine Express recruits conductors into a talent pool, and its vacancies set the process out in four steps: an online application with questions, online psychometric testing, a face-to-face interview with a member of the customer experience team, and a medical with drug and alcohol screening.

What sits inside the testing stage is not published. One detailed applicant account describes a batch of six tests sent as a single link with seven days to complete them, including a concentration test. TransPennine Express’s own press material says the assessments test concentration, decision-making and customer service.

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 TransPennine Express selection stages

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

  1. 01Online application with questions
  2. 02Online psychometric testing — one applicant account describes six tests, including a concentration test, sent as a single link with seven days to complete
  3. 03Face-to-face interview with a member of the customer experience team
  4. 04Talent pool
  5. 05Safety-critical medical with drug and alcohol screening

Detail

Worth knowing about TransPennine Express

Practice

What to practise for TransPennine Express

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

What we do not cover

  • A concentration test — timed sheets of symbols to scan and mark — is part of this process and is not practised on this site.

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. TransPennine Express publishes only that there is online psychometric testing; what it contains comes from a single applicant account.