Originally Posted by Chris the Robot
I may be a bit biased though at the end of the day and if I had the choice I'd rather be flying a plane than driving a train, however it is just a job at the end of the day. Nothing more, nothing less.
I'm the opposite. I gave up a career in commercial aviation to drive trains - something I have been doing for 15 years now and will probably retire from doing in another 20 or so.. I have the potential to earn more money than most pilots in Australia who aren't in seat 0A (and even some that
are..), but by choice have gone part time to give me 4 weeks off in every 6 weeks, yet I still earn well over $100K AUD. I still get paid to chase the horizon, I still get to listen to the ABC in the wee hours. The big difference between flying and the railway? I still have an RV-9 I can fly for fun when I want, where I want, but talking to a few tech crew over the years who are interested in trains, they can't go work a freight train somewhere to get their kicks.
Originally Posted by PilotLC
True that, but how many train driver jobs are out there waiting for someone with zero railway experience?
There's probably more than you'd think, at least in Australia. You might need to move inter/intrastate to get a gig, but that's no different to flying. I got one of the positions years ago due to a contract expansion and the willingness to move to take up the role.