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Rail Crew Tests

Who assesses what, operator by operator

There is no national standard for conductor and guard selection the way there is for drivers, so what you sit depends entirely on who you applied to. Two operators a county apart can assess you completely differently: one runs four tests online, the next runs a day at an assessment centre with colour vision cards and a cull between exercises.

These 17 pages set out what is publicly known about each operator’s process, in the order the stages come, and say plainly where the public record runs out rather than filling the gap.

17 operators

Operators with an on-board grade

Every page covers the stages, what to practise, and how solid the evidence behind it is.

Driver-only

Operators with no conductor or guard grade

Listed so nobody wastes an application. These run driver-only services.

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.

No page of their own

Operators that recruit rarely, or publish nothing

An on-board grade exists, but there is not enough in the public record to justify a page.

Caledonian Sleeper
The safety-critical grade is Sleeper Train Manager and the on-board hospitality grade is Guest Experience Sleeper Host. Recruitment is infrequent, but the Train Manager advert does say an offer depends on psychometric testing, drug and alcohol screening and a medical.
Hull Trains
On-board vacancies are advertised as Onboard Host, with Onboard Manager above them; “Train Manager” appears only in passenger-facing copy. Recruits rarely and publishes no process detail. Vacancies sit on FirstGroup’s shared careers portal.
Eurostar
Train Manager is a real grade, last advertised in 2024 and requiring English and French. Eurostar publishes almost nothing about selection beyond referring to interviews and assessment centres.
Lumo
Customer Experience Ambassador, with an apprenticeship from day one. Lumo publishes its process: a CV and covering letter, screening that may include psychometrics or a video interview, an assessment centre for the apprentice grade, an in-person interview, then a final interview with a director. The advert bars defective colour vision, so do not assume it is purely commercial.

Where to start

Not sure which operator you are applying to yet?

Start with the selection process guide, which sets out every stage across the sector, then try the free demos of the six exercises. The rules test and ticket checking turn up in more processes than anything else.

Names are descriptive only

Operator names are used here only to say whose recruitment process a page describes. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any of them.

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.