A Day In The Life Of...

Recently Amtrak posted a job opening for assistant conductors based out of NYC, i was wondering, what is a typical day in the life of an amtrak conductor based out of Penn Station like?
for example, do they work a 6 day week or a 5 day week?
is it usually a straight 8 hours? or more?
whats the furthest terminal you will travel to? (Providence, Washington and Albany?)
how many trains does the avg conductor work in a given day?
Will you always be scheduled to end up back at your home terminal at the end of your shift? (if not are you paid to dead head home?)
How long of a call to work are you given? (2 hours? 3 hours?)
after the first few years of working, do you get to bid on certain jobs? (for example, so you'll be working the same trains each day).
any info on something i may have left out would be greatly appreciated.

I hope you get a reply from a NYC person but here are a few points. Amtrak crews are subject to a two hour call. That is, if you are not working a regular assignment and are on the spare board, you must be avalable to report to the sign up point for the jb within two hours of a call by the crew dispatchers. I am not sure if the system is still working but you used to be able to call an "800" number to determine your standing on the board. An automated system would tell you how many jobs were available and where you stood in call order. I believe most corridor jobs get you back to your sign up location either by working or deadheading back. There are other jobs (e.g. the Vermonter) where the Springfield based crews lay over in St Albans each night and return to their home terminal the following day but I don't think that is a regular occurance for Penn Station crews. If I am wrong I hope someone corrects me.

If you worked out of NYC I believe you could work north to Albany, east to New Haven or Boston. I don't know the crew districts south of NYC. The work you can get depends on the Work Zone that you are assigned to. It can get kind of complicated but you have limited rights to bid on jobs outside your work zone. Folks working in that zone have first rights to the job before folks from outside the work zone are considered.

As far as bidding goes. Bid on everything you want. Just cause the old timers talk about taking a job does not meant that they will remember to actually put their bids in. You never know how it will work out for you. You may get a job other than the spare board but don't count on it being a good job. They are not all the sam, some pay better than others, others have better hours. You may get a job only because know one else wants it.

Ususally you have to be available on the spare board six days a week. Each slot on the board has a designated day off. When you take the assignment on the board your day off is determined.

God Luck
Joe

So then an amtrak conductor would be working a six day week? as opposed to the 5 day week for LIRR conductors?

SnoozerZ49 wrote:As far as bidding goes. Bid on everything you want. Just cause the old timers talk about taking a job does not meant that they will remember to actually put their bids in. You never know how it will work out for you.

That's good advice. Many a young guy has been snookered into not bidding a job because he's certain he'll never hold it or he's certain so-and-so, who's way ahead of him on the roster, has bid it in. Always bid what you want. You never know. And you definitely won't get it if you don't bid it!!

And Merry Christmas everyone!!