Amtrak Asst Conductor Work Day

Just entering the hiring process now and have a few questions about the work life of an Asst Passenger Conductor.

1. As a member of the extra board (after formal training) are you compensated for the hours spent "on-call" or only for hours actually worked?

2. Do you spend any time working in the rail yard if not assigned to a particular train/shift? (Will probably be assigned to NEC.) Thanks for your time and assistance.

Others can probably give you a more definitive answer. I've never heard of anybody being paid for on call hours, in any craft. As a conductor or AC, you will be trained for all aspects of train operation, whether in the yard or on the road; and as an extra board employee you will be subject to being called to work any job for which you are trained and qualified.

Tom

You will only be compensated for acutal time on duty.

They will cover this when you go for testing.

I don't recall for sure, but I recall them telling us at testing we would receive our normal weekly pay. You do have to report for duty within a 2 hour window, so you almost have to have your go bag handy no matter where you are.

TripTik said:

Just entering the hiring process now and have a few questions about the work life of an Asst Passenger Conductor.

1. As a member of the extra board (after formal training) are you compensated for the hours spent "on-call" or only for hours actually worked?

2. Do you spend any time working in the rail yard if not assigned to a particular train/shift? (Will probably be assigned to NEC.) Thanks for your time and assistance.

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Upon completion of training, if you cannot hold a scheduled assignment, you will be assigned to what is called a guaranteed extra board. You are "guaranteed" 40 hours of the applicable rate for being on call 24 hours a day, 6 days a week.

If for some reason you are not called for work or do not work a full week, you will receive compensation providing you remained available.

If you absent yourself from duty or miss a call, you will be compensated for the actual amount of service performed.

It is extremely unlikely you will collect much guarantee if you're working on the NEC.

As for your yard question, it depends on which crew base you are assigned and how much yard work is actually available. It also depends on if you've collected guarantee. Certain crew bases will create jobs if the list is stagnating.

Good stuff! Thank you all for your input.

I currently work at NS as a Condcutor. I can give you some insight on some of the questions you have. ThirdRail7 covered most of everything that's important.

You are not paid for the hours that you're on-call. If you don't work the Guranteed amount of time Amtrak will pay you for the guranteed amount of time.

I can also tell you that if one calls out to many times or misses to many calls when on your "probation" the chances they will fire you are higher. You don't have union protection during that time. As it was put to me by a TM at NS, it's an "Extended Hiring Session"..

One thing that TR7 missed, is that you will have to get qualified on Physical Characteristics or "PC's". At NS I had to get qualified on certain sections of Amtrak ROW within the NEC.

One thing that you will establish to "hold a job" is seniority. The more you have, the better job choices you'll get. At NS I have low seniorty and it will be some time before I can hold a job that has weekends and holidays off, etc. TR7 might be able to correct me on this, but IINM Amtrak is mostly National Seniority. Meaning you can be based out of say NYP for 4 years, and move to say El Paso, Texas as an example, where you could be the most senior Conductor. I'm not saying that this is the case, but just using it as an example.

Acela150 said:

One thing that you will establish to "hold a job" is seniority. The more you have, the better job choices you'll get. At NS I have low seniorty and it will be some time before I can hold a job that has weekends and holidays off, etc. TR7 might be able to correct me on this, but IINM Amtrak is mostly National Seniority. Meaning you can be based out of say NYP for 4 years, and move to say El Paso, Texas as an example, where you could be the most senior Conductor. I'm not saying that this is the case, but just using it as an example.

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One time I was chatting it up with a conductor on Capitol Corridor. I mentioned something that happened when I was riding on Caltrain, and he said that he used to work on Caltrain while Amtrak had the contract. I also asked if he had been offered a job with the new contract holder and he said yes. He indicated that he didn't want to give up his "national seniority" rights and I suppose a better choice of assignments.

BCL said:

Acela150 said:

One thing that you will establish to "hold a job" is seniority. The more you have, the better job choices you'll get. At NS I have low seniorty and it will be some time before I can hold a job that has weekends and holidays off, etc. TR7 might be able to correct me on this, but IINM Amtrak is mostly National Seniority. Meaning you can be based out of say NYP for 4 years, and move to say El Paso, Texas as an example, where you could be the most senior Conductor. I'm not saying that this is the case, but just using it as an example.

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One time I was chatting it up with a conductor on Capitol Corridor. I mentioned something that happened when I was riding on Caltrain, and he said that he used to work on Caltrain while Amtrak had the contract. I also asked if he had been offered a job with the new contract holder and he said yes. He indicated that he didn't want to give up his "national seniority" rights and I suppose a better choice of assignments.

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That and his seniority would go back to 0. To add to this, it's like switching railroads or going from Conductor to Engineer. You get to start all over again.

I should also mention to the OP that if your job offer or potential job offer is out of DC, you would be also on MARC trains. Amtrak has the contract for the Penn Line.

How hard are the MARC jobs to come by? I suspect they're held down by the senior guys, because I see the same guys (and gals) week after week after week.

Beats me.. But I would think you're on to something there Ryan.

The whole MARC / Caltrain thing brings up a question. Out here, Amtrak runs all of the Metrolink trains. How does it work between working an Amtrak train vs Metrolink or other contract trains? Is the seniority and job all pooled together or are they separate group? One thing that I have been seeing riding both trains is that Metrolink seems to have more youngins working vs on Amtrak. Is there a higher preference of upper seniority conductors working on a Amtrak train vs a contract train?

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the extra board could be subject to yard jobs, or jobs on Amtrak or MARC train.

Same thought goes for NHV and being assigned to the yard, Regionals, or even the Shore Line East (CDOT) trains.

With NHV I'm almost positive the extra board is shared, since I saw their recent job bids, and one could bid on Regionals, or Shore Line East trains.

Does anyone know where the new hires are being housed now in Wilmington de for training. I am from there and curious on where the lodging it. I've heard they use leased apartments and also heard of actual hotel. Anyone know ?

Lisa said:

Does anyone know where the new hires are being housed now in Wilmington de for training. I am from there and curious on where the lodging it. I've heard they use leased apartments and also heard of actual hotel. Anyone know ?

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I'm guessing they use the DoubleTree on King Street as I've seen a van from there drop off Amtrak employees.

Thank you! I have an interview tomorrow and I'm very nervous and hope I do well

Guest said:

Thank you! I have an interview tomorrow and I'm very nervous and hope I do well

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Good luck!

Do know what type of questions they ask ? Just so I can tailor my responses and be prepared. I really want this job

Good luck. What crew base are you after. If you get it we may bump into each ither

Crew base is in NYC. I think my interview went okay . A lot of situational questions. Thank god I prepared. My gut told me they would ask about angry customers, customer service skills and safety related questions.

I'm late to the discussion but am an AC out of Denver if you have any questions.

Looks like I'm not allowed to post my email. If you join the forum you can message me.

ABDeh88 said:

I'm late to the discussion but am an AC out of Denver if you have any questions.

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Welcome to AU! Saw your post re your work status and trips in Jan. 2016.

Since our 2016 Gathering in Oct will be held in Denver hopefully we will get to meet you and you also can serve as an info resource for questions about Amtrak and things Denver!

Acela150 said:

One thing that TR7 missed, is that you will have to get qualified on Physical Characteristics or "PC's". At NS I had to get qualified on certain sections of Amtrak ROW within the NEC.

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I didn't miss it because Amtrak does not qualify their corridor assistant conductors on PCs unless they are assigned to the NYT district.

Ryan said:

How hard are the MARC jobs to come by? I suspect they're held down by the senior guys, because I see the same guys (and gals) week after week after week.

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They are just like any other job. it is one of the higher seniority districts on the corridor, but there are junior people. A lot of it boils down to where an individual actually lives. A super senior person that lives in Virginia is not likely going to work out of Baltimore. That would open up a spot for someone. People that live close to Baltimore are generally going to gravitate towards the MARC jobs.