Train station attendant/station caretaker jobs

Amtrak Station caretaker/Station attendant is on duty one hour before and stays until one-half hour after all train arrivals and departures.

I was wondering how people get those job.

I love trains and I love working with people that travel by train.

When I was younger 16-19years old. I was a helper at station until they clacked down about age,

Station like HPT,sal,KAN,GAS,LAP,SSM, more

Hi, Not sure about other stations, But the Lamy NM station has an attendant there all day even though the train arrives and departs both E and W in the mid afternoon.

These are the weirdest jobs, it seems, that are around the "system". The above example at Lamy demonstrates that there are probably 2 full time employees that work a minimum of 40 hours per week each and take full benefits, even though both trains come within a couple of hours of each other. I continue to lament about the fact that they have, I believe, at least three full time employees in Houston for ONE train (not one in each direction, just one...period) only six days a week. Yet, they are open 9 1/2 hours per day (longer if the trains are running late). But they do handle checked bags.

There are also station attendants that are not employeed by Amtrak. Some are paid by the State, like in NC, and others are purely volunteers (though I think those are no longer). If they aren't employeed by Amtrak, my understanding is that they cannot handle checked baggage. So, stations like Salisbury and Kannapolis, NC - though staffed - do not offer checked luggage service.

So I guess if you can find a posting for such a job, try for it. Hours can be long, but the work hardly seems much more than clerical, with a few interruptions of handling some passenger's bags.

The caretakers at unstaffed (ie: no Amtrak ticket agent) stations in North Carolina are employees of the NCDOT Rail Division.

Since you specifically mention stations in North Carolina, it sounds like we're in the same state. Try contacting NCDOT through their Rail Division website (link provided) and ask them about the process for applying for one of those station caretaker positions.

While waiting for one of them to become available, you might want to consider looking into becoming an NCDOT Volunteer Train Host where you could be on the train between Raleigh and Charlotte interacting with passengers and answering questions. Best wishes to you.

http://www.ncbytrain.org/default.html

VentureForth said:

These are the weirdest jobs, it seems, that are around the "system". ... I continue to lament about the fact that they have, I believe, at least three full time employees in Houston for ONE train (not one in each direction, just one...period) only six days a week. Yet, they are open 9 1/2 hours per day (longer if the trains are running late). But they do handle checked bags.

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Don't forget that the station clerks in Houston also handle the Thruway bus to Galveston, Nacogdoches and Longview which connects to/from the Texas Eagle, and that is daily. They check baggage to and from it as well. They also handle ticketing and sales for what is a very large target territory, although now that so much is done on-line I don't know how that revenue stacks up vis-a-vis expenses.

ehbowen said:

VentureForth said:

These are the weirdest jobs, it seems, that are around the "system". ... I continue to lament about the fact that they have, I believe, at least three full time employees in Houston for ONE train (not one in each direction, just one...period) only six days a week. Yet, they are open 9 1/2 hours per day (longer if the trains are running late). But they do handle checked bags.

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Don't forget that the station clerks in Houston also handle the Thruway bus to Galveston, Nacogdoches and Longview which connects to/from the Texas Eagle, and that is daily. They check baggage to and from it as well. They also handle ticketing and sales for what is a very large target territory, although now that so much is done on-line I don't know how that revenue stacks up vis-a-vis expenses.

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You've got a fairly good point there, except that on busses, generally the Driver handles the baggage. Though Amtrak employees should handle Amtrak baggage, the "checking" can take place in Longview. Don't particularly see a need for a full time, benefit accruing employee staffing Houston for the throughway busses when a train isn't there.

The employees at Lamy would be full time Amtrak employees. In another case, I spoke with a man last summer when I stopped in at train time at La Plata, Missouri. He is a caretaker employed by Amtrak and it is one of three part time jobs he holds to make a living. He said there were arrangements made when he is off to keep the station open for passengers. He does not handle ticketing or baggage. Otherwise, La Plata is an attractive little station that appears to handle a fair number of passengers for the Southwest Chief.

Rugby, ND probably is one of the smallest towns served by an Amtrak agent (population about 2,900). There is one full Amtrak agent who provides ticketing services weekday mornings from 6:00am-2:00pm. Evenings and weekends the station is opened and closed by a caretaker but not sure who employs them. When I was there over New Years, there were signs up reminding patrons to buy their tickets at the depot instead of online to ensure that the Amtrak agent position would continue to stay. My guess is that when he goes on vacation or is sick they pull an agent from Minot to cover.

No checked baggage is handled at the station - probably because of the limited staffing. I wonder if checked baggage could be offered if patrons brought their luggage directly to the baggage car when the Amtrak agent was off duty like was introduced at a couple stations last year (the station names escape me at the moment - one was somewhere in Illinois).

Over 20 years ago I wAs on a driving trip and stopped at Rugby and spoke with the friendly agent, whose name was Clint Davis, who lived up near the Canaduan border in Bottineau and drive 50 miles each way 7 days a week, as at that time the job worked a half day on weekends. The station handled baggage then and he said the old folks were accommodated with baggage by having them bring it to the station in the morning to be put in the westbound to be put on the eastbound in the evening. The way things have been lately that likely would not work some if the time.

How does one score a job like this?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Amtrak Forum mobile app

To clarify my above post, the idea was to send baggage westbound in the morning from Rugby to Minot to then be sent east in the evening.

FriskyFL said:

How does one score a job like this?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Amtrak Forum mobile app

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I would ask the caretaker of the station you might be interested in how they came about the job. This was more that 10 years ago but I saw a sign on the door of the Princeton, IL station seeking caretakers and they were directed to the Chamber of Commerce for information. I believe the Princeton job was a volunteer position, not paid.

The District Manager of stations in each area is who handles any caretakers at unstaffed stations.

If you want to apply for any Amtrak positions as a ticket clerk or station agent then you would need to apply at the Amtrak website when there are positions available.

Amtrak California Capitol Corridor stations (between San Jose and Sacramento) have volunteer assistants who stand on or near the platform and provide assistance to passengers. There are brochures in many of these stations describing the positions, with a telephone number (or email address?) to contact to apply.

In my experiences these jobs are meant to replace the station agent where there are low ticket sales. With e-ticketing Amtrak should be able to replace more agent jobs with this position. I would however train them to handle luggage and assist passengers with purchasing e-tickets, using quick trak machines and booking by phone. At many small stations this would make more sense than having a full time agent Working up to 56 hours a week at a higher pay rate with full benefits. If I was Amtrak I would look at ticket sales at each station and determine if a full time agent is necessary or if a caretaker would be a better option. That way as agents retire they could be replaced by caretakers which would be a better use of resources.

Gee, what a great union man you are. ( a former ticket agent, although not for Amtrak. ). Your comments make some sense for certain low volume locations, but we could argue this point all night long! Have a nice day.

The example of the largest waste of resources that I've seen is at the Pittsburg station. A small waiting room, two trains in the early morning 5AM, 7AM and two in the evening at 8 PM and 11:45 PM and that's it! For this they have three agents in the station and baggage handlers as well and perhaps two shifts!! What these people do from 8AM to 7PM is anyone's guess.

The idea during the day in Pittburgh is to provide personal service in a major urban center. I have not observed them in action, but here in Flagstaff the station is open all day and the staff appears to earn their keep dealing with the public, even when the train times are hours away.

Crescent ATN & TCL said:

In my experiences these jobs are meant to replace the station agent where there are low ticket sales. With e-ticketing Amtrak should be able to replace more agent jobs with this position. I would however train them to handle luggage and assist passengers with purchasing e-tickets, using quick trak machines and booking by phone. At many small stations this would make more sense than having a full time agent Working up to 56 hours a week at a higher pay rate with full benefits. If I was Amtrak I would look at ticket sales at each station and determine if a full time agent is necessary or if a caretaker would be a better option. That way as agents retire they could be replaced by caretakers which would be a better use of resources.

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This will not happen as there is a clause in the contract that states that you can not replace a employee job (union job) with a caretaker(nonunion job). If they put a caretaker job in they can not sell tickets or check baggage, they can only open the door and clean.

Every station in Vermont seems to have a caretaker since none of them are considered staffed. The exceptions would be RPH, WNM and CLA which are "platform only" stations even though there's still a station building. The caretaker at WAB has been there literally every time I've taken the Vermonter since 2010, and the caretaker at ESX last time I was there was a very knowledgeable high schooler who was very interested in trains.

I'm pretty sure it's a volunteer position since Amtrak lists only employing two Vermont residents in 2013.

I live in Rugby ND, as of September 2014 there is a ticket agent available here 6 am to 2:30 pm Mon - Fri. For weekend mornings and evening trains a caretaker opens/closes. Here it is contracted out, so the caretaker is not a employee of Amtrak, but a small business person with all the associated responsibilities. The contract is from Amtrak.

FreeskierInVT said:

Every station in Vermont seems to have a caretaker since none of them are considered staffed. The exceptions would be RPH, WNM and CLA which are "platform only" stations even though there's still a station building. The caretaker at WAB has been there literally every time I've taken the Vermonter since 2010, and the caretaker at ESX last time I was there was a very knowledgeable high schooler who was very interested in trains.

I'm pretty sure it's a volunteer position since Amtrak lists only employing two Vermont residents in 2013.

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Sure their are two Amtrak employees from VT. But it's entirely possible that those employees work in the midwest or west coast.

Acela150 said:

FreeskierInVT said:

Every station in Vermont seems to have a caretaker since none of them are considered staffed. The exceptions would be RPH, WNM and CLA which are "platform only" stations even though there's still a station building. The caretaker at WAB has been there literally every time I've taken the Vermonter since 2010, and the caretaker at ESX last time I was there was a very knowledgeable high schooler who was very interested in trains.

I'm pretty sure it's a volunteer position since Amtrak lists only employing two Vermont residents in 2013.

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Sure their are two Amtrak employees from VT. But it's entirely possible that those employees work in the midwest or west coast.

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Actually they are employed in VT, as the listing generally shows revenue generated in each state and the number of employees in each state.

Some of the Vermonter engineers, based in Bra, are Vermont residents...