Southeastern has launched its biggest ever recruitment drive with a chance to earn almost £56k per year.

Southeastern wants to appoint 170 trainee drivers, more than 100 station staff, and more posts in roles such as Railway Enforcement and Protection, Onboard Managers, Train Conductors and Engineers.

There will also be roles available in management and other specialist careers.

According to Glassdoor, the average Southeastern Railway salary ranges from £19,896 per year (estimate) for a Train Movements Apprentice to £56,000 per year (estimate) for a Train Driver.

To support the recruitment drive, Southeastern has launched an advertising campaign which aims to “encourage people from communities” who may not have previously considered a career in rail, to do so.

Southeastern wants to identify and remove barriers to opportunity, attracting candidates from across the network to improve social mobility and increase hires from under-represented groups by 10 per cent year on year.

“We want to break the outdated perception of what working in rail is like”, a Southeastern spokesperson said.

This includes a series of day in the life-style videos with a range of colleagues showing a behind the scenes glimpse of working at Southeastern.

In a typical year, Southeastern would recruit 300 people to maintain the required number of colleagues to run one of the country’s biggest and busiest railways.

Doubling this is needed to support a growing Southeastern and support the goal to build a better, more reliable and sustainable railway.

Earlier this year, Southeastern became the UK’s first passenger rail operator to publish a Social Mobility Action Plan – which sets out how Southeastern will help the regions and communities it serves to fulfil their potential.

Access to well-paid and rewarding careers is a key part of this commitment and Southeastern is looking forward to working with a broad and diverse range of applicants this year and beyond