Application Advice & FAQs

We’re committed to inclusion and welcome applications from anyone. For some roles, you’ll be working in a safety critical environment and will undergo specialist training, so we’ll ask you to attend a medical before we confirm your offer. This is confidential and involves hearing and vision checks, alongside establishing any existing medical conditions you may have, medication you take, and understanding your general health.

The outcome of your medical may mean that we’re unable to confirm your offer. Where adjustments or restrictions are suggested, we always do our best to accommodate these.

Your health and safety will always be at the forefront of our minds. And because you’ll be working in a safety critical environment, you’ll undergo specialist raining. If you’re successful in the selection process we’ll ask you to attend a medical before we confirm your offer, as part of our pre-employment process. This is confidential and will involve hearing and vision checks, alongside establishing any existing medical conditions you may have, or medication you take and understanding your general health.

The outcome of your medical may mean that we are unable to confirm your offer. Where adjustments or restrictions are suggested, we always do our best to accommodate these. Please note all roles at Network Rail include a drug and alcohol screening process which will form part of your medical.

Please get in touch with us if you would like to discuss this.

We recruit for Signallers, Crossing Keepers, and Electrical Control Room Operators throughout our rail network. This means that there are often a number of locations throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The best way to find a role near you is to click ‘Apply Now’ and search the locations available.

If you are applying to our ECO role, you must have an Electrical Engineering qualification, or similar, to be considered for the role. You should also have experience working with Low and High Voltage systems.

For our Signaller and Crossing Keeper roles, you don’t need any specific experience to start a career in these areas. It’s more important that you’ve got the right transferable skills and behaviours. Please refer to the role pages for a more detailed description of these non-technical skills we look for in these roles.

Whilst you can only apply for one role, we will consider your application for other roles based on the results of your assessments and where you live. For example, If you apply for a Grade 4 position and are not successful but have the competency for Grade 6 Signalling, we will inform you of any suitable roles available near you.

We will keep your results on record for sixth months.

Our application process is similar across all of our Operations roles at Network Rail. To learn more about the application process for the specific role you’re interested in, please head to the role’s page on this site.

Whatever role you join us in, we’ll make sure we give you all the training you need to operate safely and effectively. This training varies depending on what role you apply for, so make sure to check out the page for the role you are interested in to learn more about the training you will receive.

When you apply for a role, you’ll be asked to select which location you’d like to work at. Sometimes these locations may have multiple grade options. Please refer to the page for the role you are interested in applying for to get more information about what responsibilities you would take on at each grade.

Our network is broken into 14 different routes, usually geographically. When you apply for a role, you’ll have to select a route you’d like to apply for. You can use our map on the ‘Our Routes’ page to determine which route is nearest to you.