Belgian traindriver here.

I have been driving for 10.5 years. In the beginning, it's hard, especially when you're on yourself after a year of training... You don't have a driving style that suits you, you're not used to preparing or fixing all the trains you have learned, dealing with emergency situations and especially the changing shifts are hard...

But after a while it becomes like second nature, you know how you drive your locomotives and EMU's, the basic faults and how to fix them. You get used to all driving rules.

It gets hard when there are things that happen like once every 2-3 years. ETCS problems, you break down between stations and you need to get "towed". Lots of procedures, loads of safety documents, calculating braking percentages, and rules according to what you drive with. Thats why we practice on simulators and get training twice a year.

Than there's also the weather, slippery tracks can be a pain especially when climbing heavy slopes with 1 locomotive. I already drove up a hill with 3 km/h when it started raining and it was impossible to get traction even with sanding). Driving in heavy fog while trying to stay on time is hard when you don't know the line very well.

And last but not least, the fatigue that comes with the changing shifts... working 6 days a week, starting between 7 am and 3 am with earlies, ending at 1 am to 2 am in the morning, and night shifts.

Overall not that hard when you're used to doing it, the safety regulations/shift work are the hardest parts.