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RailFanLNK

Conductor
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
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Location
Lincoln, Nebraska (LNK)
Hello Everyone,

Just got off the phone with a lifelong friend who is having a hard time finding employment. If a factory goes out of business...he's worked there. If a factory moves to Mexico, he's worked at it! If a business starts from the ground up, he gets hired but they never go up, they just stay on the ground and he makes little to no money. So...he lives near the Twin Cities and I told him about Amtrak. I told him he could ride the EB back and forth to Chicago to go out on other LD trains. He doesn't have a college education but does have experience in the food industry. So...at 40 years of age, what are his chances of being hired? Do they hire often? Is it a real hard schedule to work? He does not have a family nor kids. Only a girlfriend. I think he would be a "catch" and would be an excellent service employee at Amtrak. Does Amtrak have alot of applicants? I told him to go to the website. So...if any Amtrak employees are on this forum, can you give me your two cents worth please! Thanks everyone!
 
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Unless your friend is willing to move to the Chicago area where he could get to work in about two hours or less, I doubt very much that Amtrak would consider hiring him for a Chicago-based On-Board Services position. Depending on the attrition by retirement, he'd likely spend at least a couple of years on the extra board until he could hold a regular assignment. OBS employees generally have a "report time" (on duty time) that is 2-3 hours or more prior to the scheduled departure of the train. As far as commuting on the Empire Builder, its scheduled arrival time in Chicago is 355PM. I don't recall any OBS jobs that would have report times later than that, unless Chicago still has some jobs on the Lake Shore Limited.

The extra board protects vacancies due to the regularly-assigned employee being on vacation or laying off as well as extra cars added to a consist. It used to be the practice to call them the evening before for a morning report time and in the morning for an afternoon report time, and that is probably still the case.

They also have to be able to get to work in a timely fashion in case of a last-minute vacancy. The maximum time off they are guaranteed between runs is 48 hours. All-in-all, not conducive to living very far from the crew base.

I didn't notice any Chicago OBS jobs posted on the website. Past practice was to hire in the late Spring, so that new hires would be trained and ready to go by Memorial Day. Because of the relatively high turnover of Lead Service Attendants, those jobs can show up at any time of the year.

Hope this has been of some help.
 
I was told that when there has been a winter layoff and the attendants have been called back to work, that's a good time to apply. They are required to take drug tests and some don't pass. Others have found other employment. I've also been told that it helps to know someone.

The person who told me this was offered a job, but decided against it because it would take him away from his family for long periods of time. The good part of the trade-off is that when he'd be home, it would be for, I think it was 5 or 6 days in a row.

As far as being 40, I don't think that's considered old anymore. That shouldn't be an issue.
 
I just transfer back to Washington DC from Chicago ( I was only there for 2 weeks) because there are so many people on extra board. Chicago rarely hires but I know for fact that New Orleans, Auto Train, Washington DC and New York is on hiring mode (I should add Miami) like crazy. Chicago has huge extra board and right now there are just now calling those folks who been layoff for more than 6 months .

Unless your friend is willing to move to the Chicago area where he could get to work in about two hours or less, I doubt very much that Amtrak would consider hiring him for a Chicago-based On-Board Services position. Depending on the attrition by retirement, he'd likely spend at least a couple of years on the extra board until he could hold a regular assignment. OBS employees generally have a "report time" (on duty time) that is 2-3 hours or more prior to the scheduled departure of the train. As far as commuting on the Empire Builder, its scheduled arrival time in Chicago is 355PM. I don't recall any OBS jobs that would have report times later than that, unless Chicago still has some jobs on the Lake Shore Limited.
The extra board protects vacancies due to the regularly-assigned employee being on vacation or laying off as well as extra cars added to a consist. It used to be the practice to call them the evening before for a morning report time and in the morning for an afternoon report time, and that is probably still the case.

They also have to be able to get to work in a timely fashion in case of a last-minute vacancy. The maximum time off they are guaranteed between runs is 48 hours. All-in-all, not conducive to living very far from the crew base.

I didn't notice any Chicago OBS jobs posted on the website. Past practice was to hire in the late Spring, so that new hires would be trained and ready to go by Memorial Day. Because of the relatively high turnover of Lead Service Attendants, those jobs can show up at any time of the year.

Hope this has been of some help.
 
I have periodically seen postings for Asst. Conductor positions in Minnesota. Not real often, but maybe once or twice a year.
 
The person who told me this was offered a job, but decided against it because it would take him away from his family for long periods of time. The good part of the trade-off is that when he'd be home, it would be for, I think it was 5 or 6 days in a row.
As far as being 40, I don't think that's considered old anymore. That shouldn't be an issue.
The OBS employees who have 5-6 (or more) days off between trips are those who hold regular assignments on long-distance trains. New hires go to the extra board for several years until they accumulate enough seniority to hold a regular job. As I explained above, the maximum guaranteed time off between runs for an extra board person is 48 hours. Basically, the time off is equivalent to the paid hours of the trip they come in from, to a maximum of 48 hours. They may actually get more time off if the board is turning slowly, but it can't be counted on.

The guest poster mentioned a factor I neglected - the possibility of being furloughed during the off-season. If a crew base has a surplus of OBS employees for the projected needs, then they will furlough the most junior employees and recall them when business picks up. The pattern used to be: furloughed after Labor Day, recalled just before Thanksgiving, furloughed again after Christmas, and recalled in April or May.

The only good thing about this is that the employee's seniority continues to grow, furloughed or not. Unemployment benefits from the Railroad Retirement Board are payable only after the employee has accumulated enough credited service to be eligible.

I've worked with people who hired out when they were in their late 50's-early 60's, so you are absolutely correct; age is not an issue.
 
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As a UK citizen, I am aware that our employment practices are quite different to USA. In the above posting, a "furlough" was mentioned. I assume this is an extended time away from the job, when not needed by the employer for work. Is this time away paid by the employer? If not, do unemployed workers in that situation obtain any "welfare or relief" income from the goverment?

thanks for any info!

Ed B)
 
As a UK citizen, I am aware that our employment practices are quite different to USA. In the above posting, a "furlough" was mentioned. I assume this is an extended time away from the job, when not needed by the employer for work. Is this time away paid by the employer? If not, do unemployed workers in that situation obtain any "welfare or relief" income from the goverment?thanks for any info!

Ed B)
Limiting my response to the situation at Amtrak, when employees are furloughed they receive no compensation from Amtrak during the furlough period. Unemployment benefits are paid to the furloughed employee by the U. S. Railroad Retirement Board providing the employee has qualified for said benefits.
 
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