Amtrak Jobs

What are some Amtrak jobs that are decent-paying? What about any railroad jobs?

Conductor and engineer jobs are the best paying jobs on both Freight and Amtrak.

Engineers get paid better since they work harder. :lol:

battalion51 said:

Engineers get paid better since they work harder. :lol:

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Please they sit on there butts all day and move the throtle between notch 1 and 8 lol :lol: A conductor might have to walk a mile or more a day :lol:

I am currently being offered a conductor position on both Amtrak and CSX. These jobs are based out of NYC. I am a real people person so the Amtrak conductor position is more apealing to my personality. The CSX people told me that the average conductor on a freight train makes about $67,000. Does anyone know what the average pay of an Amtrak conductor is after 5 years? Also if you had the choice I have, which job would you take? Thanks.

I think the AC rate is $19.22/hr, and the Conductor rate is $22/hr. Obviously there is a minimum salary per year if you work exclusively off your guarantee (guaranteed 40 hours of pay per week). Most regular jobs pay between 42 and 50 hours per week, while the extra board varies from working on your guarantee to working 80 hours. I personally would take the job with Amtrak, despite the slightly lower pay, as you have a national system to which you can take your seniority, whereas CSX seniority is only useful in the east. I would probably also find working Amtrak more enjoyable and exciting than freight. I've been in Sanford before for entire Auto Train switch jobs (which is esentially like working freight), and it just isn't as much fun as a road job where there's no two similar days and sets of circumstances. But, either way I think if you love the railroading lifestyle, you'll love your career.

Thank you very much for the feed back. I agree with you. I feel getting an opportunity with Amtrak would be a much more full filling career choice. I will let you all know what the final outcome is.

I too would choose Amtrak over the freights as I believe the Amtrak job is the harder one to get, besides if you don't like it you can always go to freight.

$67,000???

Yup, it's true......I am starting at just about that with BNSF.

IGO

Be prepared for a whole different set of challenges working as an Amtrak conductor rather than a freight conductor. You must have a decent customer service personality (never mind the horror stories about the old cronies who treat customers like a nuisance). You will be responsible for fare collection and ID requirements (such as they are) and a number of other things that would never phase a freight man.

Some folks prefer working with just an engineer on the engine to make their day's wages and wouldn't want to go near the traveling public, especially on a late Amtrak train with dirty restrooms and other amenities that are working.

The customer service aspect would not be a problem for me. In my post college days, I worked on Wall St. where getting screamed at was part of the daily job. I've been in some aspect of customer service my whole career, so I don't know if the isolationism of a freight conductor's job would be appealing to me on a long-term basis. I've always enjoyed meeting and speaking to new and different people (even if they are pissed off at the moment). I should hear something before the holiday. I'll let you all know. (keeping my fingers crossed)

$20.00/hr is a/c rate at 100%, $23.20 is conductors rate at 100%. your first year as an ac you make 75%, second year 80%, and so on untill you reach 100% in 5 years, thats the way i was hired. now, amtrak will make deals too if they cant keep the proper manpower in a crewbase, like the class of ac's that was hired before my class was hired at 90% instead of 75% but they had to stay in washington crew base for 3 years. like i said amtrak only does this when they cant keep the proper manpower in a crewbase. now the $20.00 and $23.20 increases every 6 months with a cost of living wage increase as outlined in our utu off-corridor contract. usually the increase is only a few cents. hope this helps.

ryan

Thanks for the feedback Ryan. That was the info I was hoping to learn by posting here.

How quickly can a motivated a/c make conductor? Also, I assume that engineers come from the conductor ranks? What is the general time frame for that if one is interested? Cheers!

n2qmt

Well "Assistant Conductor" is a loose term. You go to Conductor school, you wear a Condutor hat, you get Conductor memos, etc. The two big things you lack when you first come out of school are qualification and pay rate. In order to be a Conductor you must be qualified on the territory your train will be running over, if you are not you can only be an assistant Conductor for that route. To get qualified your crew base must decide to pay you to qualify, or you may do so unpaid, most people wait to get paid to qualify. To qualify you make a series of trips on the head end of the train and note physical characteristics including signals, curves, sidings, double track, wyes, yards, etc. so that you can identify your location almost down to the milepost if you ever have to in an emergency situation. Once you know the territory you take a logistics test that if passed will give you qualification. Once you get qualified you have every right to a Conductor job as the next guy if you have the seniority to hold the job. In some low seniority crew bases like Washington South you could be on a Conductors job within a few months.

As far as moving to Engineer goes, you can change crafts whenever your contract for your current craft allows you to change jobs. For example, some Conductors sign a contract when they first hire that requires them to stay in a certain crew base for a certain period so that the crew base gets their investment back that it took to train and qualify you.

Thanks Battalion. I'm thinking about a career change (in airlines now). I have a good job where I am but I can relocate and start as an a/c for a little less money. That's why I was curious about "promotional" opportunities...to get me back where I'm at as quickly as possible financially.

I had applied in Denver but the starting wage was much lower than what I am making now so I could not do it. I'm looking to go East...are there places to look that are better than others? What is the "typical" crew base time contract? 1-2 years?

Well right now Lorton is hiring, that's an excellent base. There are five sets of jobs in Lorton, one yard, one relief job (two days in the yard, one road trip) and three road jobs (two round trips to Florence per week). The application shows they will be hiring two Conductors, and there is a point value, which means they [b}might[/b] give you a higher starting percentage rate than other bases might (85-90% vs. the usual 75% of regular pay). Definitely apply for that job if you want to get on, there's no train like the Pride and Joy (Auto Train).

battalion51 said:

Definitely apply for that job if you want to get on, there's no train like the Pride and Joy (Auto Train).

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Hmm, I always thought that Amtrak's pride and joy was the Coast Starlight. Yes, the AT is a close second and here on the east coast it certainly is Amtrak's pride and joy.

The Coast Starlight is a worthy competitor. Both have exclusive Locomotive Fleets, an all Superliner II consist (except for Auto Trains specialty Lounges and the CS's Parlour Car), and some of the best OBS crews in the country. Only things I can see to give AT a leg up on the CS is that AT has exclusive T&E Crew Bases, and its own Zone for those crew bases, and that AT covers its operating cost, which the CS does not.

One quick addition, Engineer jobs are being advertised in:

Oakland, CA (2)

Spokane, WA (2)

Sacremento, CA (2)

Are those all rentry or internal promotions?

ReEntry