Train Driver Salary in Australia 2026: Pay by State and Operator

On the agreements we read, the qualified driver grades in our table pay roughly $92,000 to $136,000 a year in base pay before super, and senior grades pay more. Starting trainee rates run from about $65,000 to $93,000 a year. (The qualified range covers Metro Level 1 and SPOT, Sydney Trains Driver Thereafter, the NSW TrainLink regional driver, Adelaide's Mainline thereafter and Pacific National's Level 14 and coal Levels 5 and 6; the trainee range covers the starting trainee rates in the table. Senior grades and V/Line's hourly rates are left out; V/Line's qualified All Purpose Rate includes penalties and some overtime.) Sydney Trains pays a Driver Thereafter, its established suburban driver grade, $1,959.60 a week from 1 July 2026 including the industry allowance: about $101,899 a year before tax.

None of these figures comes from a salary website. Each comes from an enterprise agreement approved by the Fair Work Commission, with the date the rate applies from. Base pay is only part of what drivers take home: penalties, allowances and overtime can add to it, and some agreements roll them into one rate, as explained below.

ProSyllabus is an independent study site. It is not part of Sydney Trains, Transport for NSW, Metro Trains Melbourne, V/Line, Adelaide Metro, Pacific National or any other rail operator or union. Every pay figure below comes from the enterprise agreement or operator document named next to it.

Base pay from each enterprise agreement; super from the ATO. Checked 5 Nov 2026.

Yearly figures shown as "about" are the weekly rate times 52, our arithmetic. Metro Trains Melbourne and Pacific National print yearly figures in their agreements, so those are theirs. All are before tax and before super.

Two things stand out. Metro's Level 1 to SPOT increase is about 47%, after six months at Level 1 and a successful assessment. And Pacific National's freight base pay is close to the passenger figures; both of its agreements add an aggregate allowance for locomotive drivers on top, and total earnings depend on the roster worked.

The agreements with trainee rates in this guide have separate training and qualified grades. How you move between them depends on each agreement's service and competency rules:

So in your first year you earn less than the headline figure. A Sydney Trains trainee on $1,797.30 a week earns about $93,460 a year; from the third year, on Driver Thereafter, a driver earns about $101,899. The Sydney Trains driver pack describes a one-year training program; how long you spend on each rate depends on when you qualify.

Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink share one agreement, the Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink Enterprise Agreement 2025. Its nominal expiry date is 1 July 2028, and its pay schedules set new rates from 1 July 2026 and 1 July 2027. The rates below include the industry allowance, which the agreement lists as a separate column; it can be withdrawn from an employee who takes part in bans or limits on work outside the dispute procedure (clause 187).

The Sydney Trains driver pack (September 2026) quotes the same $1,797.30 a week commencing salary for trainees, plus superannuation, penalty rates, shift allowances and overtime as applicable. For how Sydney Trains recruits, trains and tests drivers, see how to become a train driver in NSW.

These are the rates in Schedule B of the Metro Trains Melbourne Rail Operations Enterprise Agreement 2023, which has a nominal expiry date of 30 June 2027. The yearly figures are the ones printed beside each hourly rate in the schedule.

Under the V/Line agreement (nominal expiry 30 June 2027), drivers are paid an hourly All Purpose Rate: $85.11 an hour from 1 July 2026, rising to $87.24 from 1 January 2027, on a 40-hour week. Clause 88 says that rate already includes shift penalties, annual leave loading and four hours' overtime a fortnight, so it is higher than other operators' base rates and you can't compare it with them directly. Trainees start on $32.62 an hour, which the table does not mark as an all-purpose rate; the stage 2 and 12-month trainee rates are all-purpose.

The Keolis Downer Adelaide Rail Operations Enterprise Agreement 2024, published by the SA Attorney-General's Department, covers suburban train drivers. Its nominal expiry date is 31 December 2027, with a 4% rise each January. From the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2026 it pays a trainee $1,250.71 a week, a Mainline driver (thereafter) $1,803.65 and a Senior Driver (After 13/5/90) $2,022.26. From the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2027 the Mainline rate goes to $1,875.80.

For normal rostered work, weekend, overtime, shift and leave-loading payments for suburban drivers are paid on an averaging basis called the aggregate wage (clause 21.15). Train operations moved from Keolis Downer back to the SA Government on 2 February 2025, and we could not confirm which agreement covers drivers since then, so treat these as the 2024 agreement's rates and check the current Adelaide Metro job ad when you apply.

Queensland Rail's 2023-24 annual report says it reached in-principle agreement with traincrew unions in June 2024 for the proposed Queensland Rail Traincrew Enterprise Agreement 2024, with a nominal expiry date of 28 February 2028. We could not read a pay schedule, so we print no Queensland Rail figure. Its careers site lists a 12.75% employer super contribution on ordinary time earnings and five weeks' annual leave for traincrew.

Transperth (WA) railcar drivers have an in-force industrial agreement registered with the WA Industrial Relations Commission: the Public Transport Authority/ARTBIU (Transperth Train Operations Railcar Drivers) Industrial Agreement 2025 (AG 53/2025). The PTA describes a 25-week paid training period, including coursework and practical training, as well as on-the-job training as a trainee train driver. We could not open the agreement's rate schedule, so no WA figure is printed here.

Freight. Pacific National's intermodal train crew agreement sets base pay from 1 April 2025 of $70,828 a year at Level 1 (Driver in Training Stage 1) and $106,351 at Level 14, the minimum level for a Mainline Driver (2 UP). That agreement passed its nominal expiry date on 31 March 2026; we found no replacement, so check for one. Its NSW coal agreement pays a Trainee Level 1 $80,288, a Level 5 driver $102,510 and a Level 6 driver $106,413 from 27 February 2026, rising 2% on 19 February 2027 (to $81,893, $104,561 and $108,542). Both agreements add an aggregate allowance for locomotive drivers (9.5% of a set rate) on top of base pay. Aurizon sets driver pay in its own enterprise agreements; a current Aurizon driver ad we read (closing 11 November 2026) gives the pay only as "As per Coal EA".

So two drivers on the same grade can earn different amounts in a year, depending on the shifts and overtime they work.

Each operator runs its own recruitment rounds; check its candidate information for the stages. For Sydney Trains, the driver pack says the job-related tests may include reading comprehension, abstract reasoning and a visual search exercise; see the Sydney Trains aptitude test guide for what is known about them and how to become a train driver in NSW for the stages, training and medical.

These play in our practice player: press Start, answer them, and the result page explains each answer. They are our own independent practice questions, not Sydney Trains questions.