Passenger Trains > Amtrak Engineers

What is the average salary that a Amtrak bring home yearly?

Thanks for any feed back"

Amtrak engineers are not salaried employees; they are hourly wage earners. There are so many different jobs that an "average" annual pay would be descriptive of nothing. There are some jobs locally (PDX-KFS) that, if the trains are running on time, pay less than 40 hours straight time equivalent per week. There are some jobs at other locations that will work 70 or more hours per week and be paid overtime rate after eight hours on each of the six days. Then there's always the extra board engineer that may work seven days per week in the crew bases that are perennially short of employees. Sure, the contract says the extra board engineer has a day off each week but the "day off" is actually "24 hours off" which means, for instance, that the engineer could arrive in his home terminal at 2 PM on the return trip of his "sixth day" call and go right back out at 3 PM the next afternoon. The "day off" is a joke in many cases.

Depending on all sorts of things, I have heard that an Amtrak engineer can earn from $35,000 to $70,000 depending on years of service, hours worked etc. This is what I have been told by a so called reliable source.

I've heard we have two or three conductors (who make less then engineers) who made 100k plus last year, but those were rumors and in order to do that you'd practically have to live on the road.

Guitarman Wrote:
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> Depending on all sorts of things, I have heard
> that an Amtrak engineer can earn from $35,000 to
> $70,000 depending on years of service, hours
> worked etc. This is what I have been told by a so
> called reliable source.


So much for your reliable source, make sure he doesn't sell you any guitar strings, seniority to a certain extent does help but because we are hourly than it's the hours and the job that works the longest will determine what you make. Your approximation is pretty close but like anything else it depends on where you live. So if you live in Arkansas you can live like a king, but if you live in the San Francisco Peninsula well let's just say that what Amtrak pays will be just enough for the rent.

hogtrainer

As a amtrak west conductor i made $102,000.00 in 2004. damn i hate that baby-bullitt project ended.

KICK IT UP A LITTLE. YOU ARE IN THE CONDUCTOR RANGE. tHE WAGES AT AMTRAK ALL DEPENDS WHAT JOB YOU HOLD. BUT YOU DON'T SEE TO MANY OF OUR ENGINEERS LIVING UNDER THE BRIDGE.

Yes, it was great, but the IRS was right their with their hands out. It was almost like walking the streets of SFO on a Sunday morning by the time they got done with you.

Having just completed my tax return... But, we need to remember that some of what we paid the IRS has come back to us in Amtrak service (and, in the case of Amtrak employees, pay).

Just remember, we get no sick pay, there's no nice short term disability plan for us, thought the BLET has a plan it's for freight guys only (long story with the reason why). You can always invest in your own plan, it's wise to do so as you never know what will happen to you out there, additionally put into the 401k so you have something to fall back on and it doesn't hurt to save a little on the side as well. When your sick, say you need an operation, railroad retirement benefits are only $57 per day and they let you claim weeekends but don't pay you for it, so you get about $550 and change every two weeks. Lets just say I made more as a new hire engineer while training in 2003, than I did for the year 2006 because of health issues. But as 'hogtrainer' said the jobs on the SF Peninsula go by senority, you have more senority you get a choice job that pays well, my gig I was on paid fairly decent but wasn't the best of hours on some days. However all good things come to you in time, the more senority you build up, the better a job you can bid and it could be one with better hours, time off, etc. So there are many factors to keep in mind, and in this day in age on Amtrak with management wanting every engineer to run by themselves, it pays to get job insurance to and protect yourself with a back up income incase anything happens. Because anything can happen, and you never know when, and it doesn't matter how perfect you think you are....it can happen. So I hope my advice was helpful, and I hope it didn't seem negative, I tried not to make it sound that way just trying to add my two cents and offer some advice. See I learned by some of the comments I've made, such as the 401k and back up savings, due to my health issues, so things will change down the road trust me. As they say, you live and you learn, take it all in and learn for next time, but hope there never is a next time no matter what.

FallinFlag Wrote:
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> As a amtrak west conductor i made $102,000.00 in
> 2004.

How much did you make in 2005 and 2006?

topper Wrote:
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> FallinFlag Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > As a amtrak west conductor i made $102,000.00
> in
> > 2004.
>
> How much did you make in 2005 and 2006?

Hmm, that's pretty damn good for a conductor! Did you live on site with a camper truck or did you do some kind of specific company favor you know special duty etc? just asking.

hogtrainer

That's when we were doing 12 a night on them work trains, even as an a/c prior to going into engine service I was making good coin off that job. And our friend FallinFlag was training new hire trainmen that would get sent out for training on the job, so I'm sure some extra coinage was picked up that way too, only he can say.

hogtrainer Wrote:
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> Hmm, that's pretty damn good for a conductor! Did
> you live on site with a camper truck or did you do
> some kind of specific company favor you know
> special duty etc? just asking.
>
> hogtrainer