At a time when ethanol-fueled hybrid vehicles are all the rage, a more
traditional mode of transportation is experiencing a quite resurgence.
Railroad operators say increased business and a graying workforce are
about to create a shortage of locomotive engineers and conductors in the
United States.

Seeing a field that needs workers, Bucks County Community College is
trying to launch a basic training program in locomotive engineering and
conducting.
“The railroads are still a part of we move people and material,”
said Barbara Miller, BCCC’s Vice President for continued education,
workforce development and public safety.

The course covers operating rules, train air-brake theory, railroad
infrastructure, diesel and electric locomotive operations and other topics.
It’s designed to prepare students for a railroad training academy.
The course was offered for the spring semester, but it failed to generate the
necessary enrollment. The school will try again in the fall, said Miller.
The need for engineers, who drive locomotives, and conductors, who are in
charge of the trains, is very real, according to regional and national railroad
officials.

“We need to do more recruiting than we
have in many years,”
said Tom White, spokesman for the
Washington D. C. based association of
American Railroads.
Over the last few decades, railroads
slowed their hiring as the industry
declined and technological advances automated many jobs.

“The railroad industry went through a period of time in the 1980s and
1990s where they won’t hiring,” White said. “The technology made
[operations] more efficient and they didn’t need many people. So the
railroad industry is an aging industry. A lot of people are reaching retirement
at the same time.”Those retirements have escalated in the last few years because the federal government lowered the age at which railroad workers could retire with full benefits from 62 to 60, said Andy Burton, director of the National Academy of Railroad Sciences in Kansas.“For 15 years, the railroads weren’t hiring anyone and it’s starting to catch
up with them.” Said Burton.And it’s happening at time when railroad use has increased more dramatically than even industry experts had predicted.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the particularly dramatic growth in the
industry,” White said. The high cost of fuel has prompted some companies to use rail service rather than trucking to transport their products, said White. That, coupled with growth in national and global trade, has helped drive the increase.“Moving a lot of goods over long distances is something rail does extremely efficiently,” White said. “At the same time, we’re seeing a huge run-up in the price of fuel. Fuel prices are a much higher percentage of truckers’ costs than ours, so we’ve got more of a competitive edge over trucks there.” According to the Union Pacific Corp., one of the nation’s largest railroad companies, a gallon of diesel fuel moved one ton of freight about 400 miles in 2001, making it between two and four times more efficient than trucks.
The association predicts rail freight demand will jump 67 percent by 2020.
Burton estimated the industry will hire 85,000 workers including 18,000
conductors, in the next five years. Every year, his academy trains about
1,100 conductors from all over the country.

SMS Rail Lines is a New Jersey based short-line rail service that operates in
area industrial complexes, including the Penn Warner Industrial Park in
Falls. Owner Jeff Sutch said he has noticed the increase in rail freight
business. “A lot of things that had been moved by truck are coming back to
rails,” said SutchThe New Hope resident said he was surprised and pleased to hear about BCCC’s attempt to start a locomotive engineering/conducting course.Salaries for conductors and engineers average about $65,000 and $75,000, respectively, according to the railroad association. On the downside are odd shifts, including nights weekends and holidays, and plenty time away from home. “It’s a certain type of lifestyle,” said Rudy Husband, director of public relations for the Norfolk Southern Corp. “It’s definitely a commitment.”Virginia based Norfolk Southern is a rail service that employs 30,000 workers and operators in 22 states, including Pennsylvania.
“We’ve been in hiring mode for the last couple of years and we expect it to
continue,” said Husband. “Half of our company will be eligible to retire
in the next five years.”

SMS Rail Lines Receives the 2008 Jake Award for Perfect Safety