The bigger railroads would have a need for in-house environmental support and such personnel would be located at headquarter offices. From what I have seen, the greatest need would be for health and safety, due diligence in support of land acquisition/divestment, hazardous materials (handling, clean-up, emergency response), water (specific to oil spill containment and remediation) and soils (oil and hazardous material spills and remediation). Needs that cannot be met in-house are then farmed out to the consultants. My expertise is air permitting and I worked with Conrail back in 1995/1996 taking care of their New Jersey DEP air permits. My contact was out of Philadelphia and she was responsible for health and safety (the Conrail environmental staff was significantly thinned out prior to the break-up; my old contact went to the Pennsylvania DEP). The railroads keep a lean staff and a non-railroad client of mine (in the power generation industry) has indicated that he has seen resumes come in from disgruntled employees for a major carrier. The railroads would first try to promote from within to fill managerial positions, however, I am not sure how much environmental expertise is among the rank and file. I occasionally check the railroad web sites to see if there are any environmental positions open - I do not see much posted.
