Platform Assistant – Nottingham Station

Join #TeamEMR and help keep Nottingham moving

At East Midlands Railway, we’re proud to be One Team.

Every day, our 2,600 colleagues work together to keep people safe, put customers first and build a sustainable railway for the East Midlands.

We’ve been accredited as a Top Employer ten times and have achieved Gold accreditation against the Inclusive Employers Standard. We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, supported and empowered to bring their authentic self to work.

Now, we’re looking for future Platform Assistants to join #TeamEMR at Nottingham Station.

About the role

As a Platform Assistant, you’ll be at the heart of the station.

You’ll be one of the first people our customers see and someone they can rely on throughout their journey. From helping someone find the right platform to safely dispatching a train, you’ll play a vital role in keeping our railway safe, welcoming and running on time.

This is a Safety Critical role, so safety will always come first. But it’s also a role where your personality, communication skills and willingness to go the extra mile can make a real difference to our customers.

You’ll be responsible for:

• Safely and punctually dispatching train services
• Providing customers with information, guidance and wayfinding support
• Helping passengers board and alight trains, including customers who need additional care or assistance
• Supporting security checks at the station
• Being visible, proactive and approachable throughout your shift
• Acting as an ambassador for EMR and creating a positive experience for our customers
• Staying calm, focused and professional during busy periods and disruption

No two shifts will be exactly the same. Nottingham is a busy station, and you’ll need to think on your feet, make confident decisions and remain calm under pressure — all while delivering a great customer experience.

Hours & shift pattern

Most Platform Assistants work 37 hours per week across a 4-day working week.

This is a shift-based role covering the full operating day of the station. At Nottingham, the earliest book-on time is 04.45 and the latest book-off time is 02:15, so flexibility is essential.

Training & safety

No railway experience? That’s absolutely fine.

We’ll give you the training and support you need to build your railway career.

Your training will include classroom-based learning covering railway rules and procedures, followed by a supported mentoring period at the station. You’ll learn from experienced colleagues and develop the knowledge and confidence needed to carry out the role safely.

As this is a Safety Critical position, successful candidates will need to pass a medical assessment, including drugs and alcohol screening. This is a condition of employment.

What we’re looking for

You don’t need previous railway experience. What matters is that you have the right attitude and are ready to learn.

We’re looking for people who are:

• Proactive and positive, with a genuine can-do attitude
• Calm and confident in a busy, fast-moving environment
• Safety focused, with strong attention to detail
• Great communicators, able to connect with a wide range of customers
• Reliable and team-focused, with a willingness to support those around you
• Customer focused, with a desire to make a positive difference to every journey

If you enjoy working with people, take pride in doing things properly and want a role where every day brings something different, we’d love to hear from you.

What’s in it for you?

As part of #TeamEMR, you’ll enjoy a range of benefits, including:

• Free travel on the EMR network
• Up to 75% discounted travel across the national rail network
• Friends & Family discounted tickets
• Defined benefit railway pension scheme
• Access to a comprehensive employee benefits portal
• Cycle to Work scheme
• And much more

Ready to take the next step?

Submit your online application and upload your CV. We operate a blind screening process, so please remove all personal information, including your name, from your CV before uploading it.

Once the vacancy closes, shortlisted candidates will be invited to complete an online task-based assessment as part of the recruitment process for this Safety Critical role.

Candidates who pass the online assessment will then be invited to an assessment day.

Successful candidates will be offered a role, subject to availability, or placed into our talent pool for up to 12 months. Our talent pool means you won’t need to reapply — should a suitable vacancy become available during this time, we’ll be in touch directly.

Our commitment to inclusion

At EMR, we want our workforce to reflect the diverse communities we serve.

We recognise that women and ethnic minority groups are currently under-represented in parts of our organisation, and we’re actively working to change that.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, and particularly encourage applications from those who identify with currently under-represented groups.

Your next career could start here. Join #TeamEMR and help us keep the East Midlands moving.

PLEASE NOTE - This vacancy may close early if application numbers are high. 

Closing Date: 28 Sep 2026

Department: Customer Experience

Salary: Full time salary £25,960.74 per annum rising to £29,800.19 after 6 months
Free travel on EMR services and 75% discount on all other train operators

We are proud to be One Team at East Midlands Railway (EMR). We are passionate about keeping people safe, delighting our customers, doing the right thing and putting customers at the heart of our sustainable railway for the East Midlands. With over 2,600 employees, our people are the reason we are so successful, and the Customer Service team make a crucial contribution to this. 

Ten times accredited as a Top Employer, we value our people and are dedicated to making sure that everybody feels empowered to bring their authentic self to work. We have an outstanding opportunity to join #TeamEMR as an Apprentice Train Manager at Sheffield. 

At EMR we want to proactively embrace diversity across our workforce and recognise that we are under-represented in terms of females and ethnic minority groups. We’re therefore taking positive steps to promote a positive and inclusive culture; we welcome applications from those that identify with these groups to better represent our communities.

We pride ourselves on delivering excellent customer experience through our customer promise, the Train Manager plays a huge part in that and will provide day to day management of the On-Train operations on our services. You will assist in developing professional, highly motivated and enthusiastic teams on board, whilst ensuring consistent, excellent customer service standards are maintained. Our Train Managers must be passionate about delivering high levels of customer service; with a natural instinct for working well with others in this face-to-face role.  

On successful completion of training the Train Manager will:

• Provide exemplary levels of customer service
• Ensure the safety of customers at all times
• Provide customers with advice and guidance as necessary
• Maintain high standards of personal appearance, hygiene and conduct
• Check and verify tickets
• Supervise all On-Train customer service activities to ensure that high standard is maintained at all times
• Check equipment, cleanliness and general customer environment for the train to ensure that all is in order
• Where shortcomings exist take further action by either correcting or reporting faults
• Be visible to customers and team at all times
• Manage overall financial responsibility for any cash transactions made on board, and for control of stock and equipment.

You will be assisting customers as necessary, providing exceptional customer service at all times, this is on the good days and during times of disruption and busy periods, come rain or shine. This role is shift work based on a rota to provide customer service for all our passengers from the first train in the morning to the last train at night. So you will need to be flexible in order to work the shifts and live within 60 minutes of the station.

This is a great opportunity to gain a Level 2 Passenger Transport Operative Apprenticeship alongside the operational training for this role.

You do not need to have previous experience working within the railway industry, all the safety critical training is provided to the successful candidates!  There is classroom style training for all the rules and procedures and then a mentor period out on the station.  

The successful candidate will be required to undertake a safety critical medical and drug screening. An element of the safety critical medical is the satisfactory completion of a railway standard colour vision tests.

The recruitment process is thorough as we are looking for the right candidates with the ability to manage the safety critical/ operational side to the role as well as provide an amazing customer experience to our customers.

• Stage 1 – Submit your application online and upload your C.V. As we operate blind screening please remove personal details from your CV. 
• Stage 2 – Online Task-Based Assessment (shortlisted candidates will be sent this to complete)
• Stage 3 - If you successfully pass the tests you will be invited to an assessment day on Monday 12th October 2026  which will involve group activities and for some, a competency based interview in the afternoon.

If you are successful at the assessment day you will either, be offered the immediate vacancy, or you will be placed into the Talent Pool for a maximum of 12 months. During that time, you will not need to apply for this role again.  As and when we have an Apprentice Train Manager vacancy arise, we will be able to pick up the phone and make a job offer. 

As well as a competitive salary, we’ll also offer you:

• Defined benefit Pension scheme
• Free standard leisure travel on the EMR network and Train Operating Companies under Abellio & LNER
• Friends and Family discounted tickets on the EMR network
• 75% discount on national leisure travel (inc partner and dependants)
• Up to 32 days annual per year
• …and many more!

Here is what our fantastic team have to say about life at EMR!... 

Closing Date: 27 Sep 2026

Department: Customer Experience

Salary: Year 1 salary: £40,252.54 Year 2 salary: £42,552.68
Free Leisure Travel on EMR services + discounted train travel with other train operators