Salaries of 3,200 euros per month plus extras: these are the requirements to work as a train driver for Renfe

Being a train driver in one of those jobs that requires preparation, quite specific training and in which you have to pass several tests, but which also has conditions that can make many people consider it.

Between extras and rights acquired over the years, a Renfe train driver can earn an average of 50,000 euros a year. Now, the railway company has released the bases of its Public Employment Offer (OPE) 2022.

This Wednesday it has published the requirements and the procedure to incorporate nearly 1,000 new workers in the fields of driving and commercial operator of the operator.

Of them, the majority are machinists, with 600 places, of which 430 correspond to state-level services; 150 corresponding to traffic service tables in Catalonia, Extremadura, Miranda de Ebro and Zaragoza, and 20 for cross-border traffic services: 8 in Irún, 8 in Portbou and 4 in Barcelona.

Likewise, the OPE contemplates the call for 375 places of commercial operators N2 (300 at the state level and 75 for Catalonia), which represents 70 more places than the 2021 job offer.

Conditions and deadlines to present

It is not easy in terms of time or money to become a train driver for Renfe. To begin with, they must cut with a driver’s license. On the website of the public company they report several centers where this training can be carried out, which between practices and exams can hover between 15,000 and 20,000 euros.

Once with the driver’s license, applicants can now oppose the selection processes that Renfe open and that consist of a psychotechnical examination and another on driving and practical regulation.

With the opposition approved, the applicants already get their place if they exceed the cut-off mark for that year and, later, they can consolidate it after the years by becoming, yes, Renfe’s own train drivers. Otherwise, they become reserve drivers who receive a much lower benefit and remain on the company’s job board.

For this specific call, the jobs will have as a reference the working and remuneration conditions established in the Collective Agreement of the Renfe Group and the applicants must meet, by February 27, 2022, the specific requirements detailed in the call.

The deadline for the admission of applications starts this Wednesday, February 16, 2022 and ends on March 2, 2022, both included. All the information to participate in the process is offered by Renfe through this portal.

How much does a Renfe train driver earn?

To get an idea, train drivers without a place can earn from 850 to 1,000 euros a month as a minimum, compared to 24,000 per year for train drivers who have a place and those who are definitely Renfe train drivers, who have a salary that around 3,200 euros per month plus accessories.

All this process means that Renfe oppositions have a lot of competition, but in turn the selection process takes a long time, which affected the complaints of the strike promoted by the union.

The lack of these professionals has been criticized in recent months. The SEMAF union has insisted that rail services currently had “a deficit of 861 fewer trains per day, compared to a similar day in 2019.” These figures, according to the union organization, represent “25,830 fewer trains per month and 309,960 fewer trains per year”. “A service that the company had deteriorated taking advantage of the COVID 19 pandemic, and that it did not intend to recover,” they have criticized.

In this line, they have crossed out the operator of having “drawn the strategy of removing trains to eliminate personnel and without workers and not to recover the trains”. “They have even left towns without any service,” they stressed.