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Monday, 26 October 2015

Cars & Transportation: Rail: “Question: Anyone know why NS has so many open positions for train crew and are they any better or worse to work for than the other class ones?” plus 4 more

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Cars & Transportation: Rail: “Question: Anyone know why NS has so many open positions for train crew and are they any better or worse to work for than the other class ones?” plus 4 more

Question: Anyone know why NS has so many open positions for train crew and are they any better or worse to work for than the other class ones?

Posted: 26 Oct 2015 02:54 PM PDT

The phrasing of your question seems to imply that the reason for the large number of vacancies may have to do with job quality, and this may or may not be the case (it's impossible to know with the publically available facts). I would invite you to consider two additional possibilities though: expansion, and retirement turnover.

NS, like most of the Class I railroads, are incredibly accurate barometers of the economy overall, and they tend to be a leading indicator of both industrial production (by examining raw materials shipping) and consumer sentiment (by looking at intermodal shipments, most of which originate from foreign ports and contain consumer products). Despite a lot of doom and gloom on financial fronts, the truth is that most railroads have seen an uptick in these two measurements in recent years, yet railroads have been reluctant to hire at the same pace. Part of this is because railroads, being primarily union employers, take on a significant commitment when they hire someone, and it's often better to push the limits of the current labor pool before adding to it. Another part of it is that for this same reason--union commitments--the railroad may have had more people on the payroll than it really needed during times of lower freight volume (and it took a while for it to feel the new hiring pressure).

The retirement turnover issue is something that does come up from time to time for railroads, also because of the nature of economic cycles. If you look at railroads seniority numbers, you'll see that railroads tend to hire in waves that tend to coincide with expansion periods. The unfortunate side effect of this is that this also means people tend to retire in waves. NS has a much older workforce than many similar industries, so it would not surprise me if they were facing a lot of retirements all at once. This is especially true since many folks who might have been eligible for retirement may have been holding back over the last few years due to the economy, and are now choosing to go through with it.

In short, don't automatically assume a hiring wave by a railroad is a sign that something is wrong--in fact, it could be quite the opposite.

Question: What railroad company do you miss the most?

Posted: 26 Oct 2015 01:59 PM PDT

BC Rail.

Passenger operations 7 days a week. Seasonal regularly scheduled mainline steam. Very railfan friendly. Very open to having charters and excursions booked.

Question: In addition to transporting goods to market, what was another benefit of the growth of railroads?

Posted: 26 Oct 2015 08:17 AM PDT

Passenger service was a direct benefit. Before the railroads people traveled at 5 or 6 miles per hour at most. In the 1830's railroads could transport people at 30 miles per hour and did.

Railroads were the first really big business. Corporate principles which evolved from running railroads are still used by large corporations today.

Railroads provided wage paying jobs for millions of people at a time when most people worked in agriculture and there were no secure wages.

Question: I would like to pursue a career as a locomotive engineer but i dont know how?

Posted: 25 Oct 2015 08:27 PM PDT

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