Railroad career ????

Question

I’m currently working for the union pacific railroad and its year #2. I was cut off for 6 mouths last year and up to 4mounts and counting this year. I’m trying to figure out if the railroad is the way to go? When I took a look at our 150% retirement its not what we where tooled . most guys with 30years in only make about 3,000 a mouth in retirement. That’s only 36,000 a year Then there is the med. benefits. Do we lose them when we retire Or will they stay with use till we die? I need to hear from someone in my same situation please ease my mind but I would love to hear from everyone. All the people that I can talk to are going to retire in a year or so the others just don’t care. There is talk about going to one man crews and will there even be a conductor on the train in 30 years? There are laying off all the clerks in California so who is to say that we are not next??? Thank you

Answer 1

If this is a major concern, then you might want to consider a career in the military. While we only get 1/2 our base pay at the highest rank we obtained, every time the active duty folks get a raise so do we. The medical benefits as well as the commissary  and exchange benefits add into the mix. You can retire from the military at 20 years and still reap the benefits. I retired at 39.

Answer 2

Geno,

There are no gaurantees, never have been.

The old guys that "just dont care" know this and wont give you an answer because there are none.

But think about it, all those guys with onoly a year to work, who is going to take their place?

The railroad industry is very healthy now and all major carriers anticipate increased traffic and hiring in the next 5 years.

If you are willing to relocate I am quite positive you could go to work tomorrow, talk to your human resources people and ask them if there are any terminals needing people.

On your $3000.00 a month retirement, your spouse gets half of that also, and $4500 a month is pretty darn good, where are y ou going to do better? And if you're looking at 30 years to work and arent paying into a 401K you should be.

No one can tell you what is going to happen next, my son is trying to get hired and has the same questions.

One thing I can tell you, there will always be trains, every time fuel goes up a nickela gallon, it gets harder for trucks to compete and eventually people will realize how much more environmentally cleaner railroads are than trucks.

Somebody has to run those trains, might as well be you as someone else.

When I started railroading there were 5 people on a crew. whenever there cutbacks it was alwasy done by attrition, they did not just eliminate a job of someone who already had a position.

I will not address the medical benefits part other than to say there are union packages that allow you to purchase continued benefits at a very reasonable rate until y ou qualify for medicare.

Where are you going to do better?

LIfe is a gamble, I've been doing this in 4 states and for 3 different railroads, you toss the dice and see what comes up.

Good Luck.

Answer 3

My husband worked for the UP until they furloughed about 250 engineers and said they'd call back maybe within 2-3 years. If you want to move, you might check with the Canadian National Railway System - they go through the middle of the US and are some of the highest paid engineers and conductors in the US. Your answer to the insurance, as far as I understand is that most retired trainmen receive Railroad Medicare.