Conductor (transportation) - Conductors in North America

Conductors in North America

In North America, the conductor manages a freight, passenger, or other types of train, and directly supervises the train crew, which can include a (brakeman, flagman, ticket collector, assistant conductor, and on board service personnel). All crew members work under the conductor. The Conductor, engineer, and additional engine crew members (fireman, pilot engineer) share responsibility for safe and efficient train operation and adherence to railway rules and procedures. On some railroads, union contracts specify that conductors must progress to engineer.

Other conductors duties include:

• Jointly coordinate with the engineer and dispatcher the train's movement authority, and verifying this authority is not exceeded
• Communicate and coordinating with other parties—yardmasters, trainmasters, dispatchers, on board service personnel, etc.
• Be alert to wayside signals, switch position, and other conditions that affect safe train movement
• Mechanicaly inspect rolling stock
• Assist the engineer in testing the train's air brakes
• Signal the engineer when to start or stop moving
• Keep a log of the journey
• Check tickets and collect fares on passenger trains
• Attend to passenger needs
• Keep records of consignment notes and waybills
• Direct, coordinate, and usually manually perform, shunting or switching

Passenger trains may employ one or more assistant conductors who assist the conductor and engineer in the safe and prompt movement of the train, to share the workload, and accept delegated responsibility. If a train crew's route, or tour of duty, exceeds a single shift, or conflicts with a legal or contractual limit on the number of work hours, more than one crew may be assigned, each with its own conductor. Onboard service crew memberson passenger trains normally remain on duty for the entire run, including assigned meal and sleep breaks.

Since nearly the beginning of railroading in North America, the conductor on freight trains rode aboard a caboose, along with the rear flagman and the rear brakeman, and performed duties from there. Advances in technology and pressure to reduce operating costs made cabooses redundant, and in most cases they have been eliminated. This relocated the conductor from the rear of the train to the locomotive (or locomotives) at the head of the train. In most cases, these same conditions gradually, eliminated members of the train crew under the conductor—head and rear brakemen, flagmen, and others.

Most freight trains on most railroads today have a crew of two: one conductor and one engineer. Railroad companies continue to press for reduced operating and labor costs and this threatens to eliminate conductors. Railroads rationalize that since the engineer is already qualified as a conductor, he can easily assume the duties of a conductor. In fact, on most railroads, engineers begin as brakemen/assistant conductors, then become conductors, and finally engineers. Some railroads already implement such a strategy, notably the Montana Rail Link, and operate with an engineer, and an assistant engineer. However, most railroads are contractually obligated to employ at least one conductor in addition to the engineer, via crew consist agreements negotiated with the major rail unions, primarily the United Transportation Union (UTU). Therefore, eliminating the conductor position would require that the railroads and unions negotiate a new agreement. If the railroads were successful, conductors already trained and certified as engineers would be able to work as engineers. Those that have not yet progressed to engineer would have to be trained as engineers as positions became available. Others would have to accept other positions or possibly lose their jobs. The primary union for engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers does not support this movement, claiming that requiring its members to operate trains alone would be unsafe. The conductors' union, the United Transportation Union, also opposes this initiative, despite historical differences with the engineers' union.