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In the United States, commuter service is typically operated by public transit authorities with diesel-electric equipment and trains will often share freight and intercity passenger lines for a fee. The commuter agency will purchase and maintain equipment and handle all ticketing and customer services. In some cases, the host railroad also functions as the contracted operator.
Some commuter railroads have acquired separate rights-of-way for their high demand lines and this gives them more flexibility in scheduling trains during peak commuter travel periods. There are 22 commuter rail systems in the United States with a total length of 7,685 kilometers. Figure 2.13 shows a North Star train as an example of commuter rail that operates northwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. and a commuter train from Helsinki, Finland.
Figure 2.14 - North Star Commuter Rail Train in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. (Left) and commuter train in Helsinki, Finland (Right)
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Railroads used national multipliers for total economic output and jobs that result from that level of spending in the associated industry.
Table 2.9 - Railroad Employment by Region
Mode European Union United States
Urban Passenger Rail 97,62420
Passenger Rail (Amtrak) 20,50021
Freight Rail 184,00022
Freight Suppliers and Manufacturers 150,00022
Jobs supported by Rail Industry capital improvements
175,00022 Railway operators and related
organizations
1,300,00023
Total 1,300,000 627,124
The E.U. doesn’t have similar categorizations of employer groups as the U.S. and their statistics didn’t include information on urban mass transit. The number of people directly employed by railway operators is 1.3 million, based on official Eurostat statistics. Two problems arise, however, in relation to this information. First, the data available at the European level are incomplete and do not provide statistics on rail transport for all Member States. Second, these figures do not illustrate the development of employment in railway services accurately, taking into account the extensive restructuring of the sector, which has led to a more heterogeneous market structure, in which large rail companies have created separate divisions for different types of services and/or outsourced services to companies active in other sectors. In some cases, the state railways in Europe have also significant other operations outside rail transportation, such as buses or trucks. Another discrepancy that is apparent is between data from official statistical offices and those provided by the operating companies themselves and by other sources close to
20 “Public Transportation Fact Book”, American Public Transportation Association, 62nd Edition, April 2011, accessed July 26, 2011, http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/FactBook/APTA_2011_Fact_Book.pdf
21 “Amtrak, America’s Railroad Annual Report FY 10”, Amtrak, 2011, Accessed August 19, 2011,
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobwhere=12 49229514103&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-
disposition&blobheadervalue1=attachment;filename=Amtrak_AmtrakAnnualReport_2010_v1.pdf
22 “America’s Freight Railroads, Supporting American Jobs, Moving the American Economy”, Association of American Railroads, 2011, Accessed August 19, 2011,
http://www.aar.org/~/media/aar/communications/railroadsjobs_final%20_3_.ashx
23 “Employment, Industrial Relations and Working Conditions in the European Rail Transport Sector”, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin, Ireland, 2006 (www.eurofound.eu.int)
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the company level, such as industry associations. This makes it difficult to attain a clear and unambiguous picture of the development of employment in the past and of current employment levels23.
One common factor between the U.S. and E.U. workforce is employee age which is higher than in other industries. Concerns over the increasing age of workforce in the U.S. were most recently raised in the Railroad Workforce Modal Profile which stated that in a span of seven years (1997- 2004), the average employee age across the Class I railroads increased by nearly 10 years while the overall employee population decreased by almost 10,000 (Figure 2.15)24. The same trend was also discussed in a study by Michigan State University (MSU) that used high retirement rates and bimodal workforce age distribution as basis for increased expectations for recruitment25. Finally, a survey conducted by Michigan Technological University revealed unprecedented demand for railroad engineers by the largest U.S. freight railroads26.
Figure 2.155 – Railroad Employee Age Distribution Shift in the U.S., 1997-2004
24 “Railroad Industry Modal Profile, An Outline of the Railroad Industry Workforce Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities”, Federal Railroad Administration, October 2011, accessed November 2, 2011,
http://www.fra.dot.gov/rpd/downloads/TR_Railroad_Industry_Modal_Profile_Final_Release_v3.pdf
25 “Railroad Industry Management Education Needs Assessment”, Neilson, D.J., Michigan State University, 2006, accessed October 10, 2011 https://www.raileducation.com/needs_assessment.pdf
26 “Rebuilding Railroad Engineering Education in the United States with Industry-University Partnerships”, Lautala, P.T. and Sproule, W.J.,Transportation Research Record 2109, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, 2009.
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In the United Kingdom, Project Brunel was established to address the same concerns on aging workforce. The project found that there is a growing gap between the demand and supply for transportation professionals and the gap was higher in rail transportation than highway or transportation planning sectors27.
Even though the employment data obtained is incomplete and lacks possibility for direct comparison, it is evident that the total overall workforce related to rail transportation and related industries is significantly larger in the E.U. than in U.S. The actual magnitude of difference remains undefined, but the employment figures provide a good starting point when considering the demand for rail industry professionals and related rail higher education. These aspects are investigated in the following two chapters.
27 “Project Brunel: Transport Industry Resources Study”, Franklin Andrews Construction Economists, December 2008, accessed September 2011, http://www.theihe.org/training/uploads/project_brunel_final_report.pdf
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