(The following article by Eric Anderson was posted on the Albany Times-Union website on September 29.)
RENSSELAER, N.Y. — Seventeen positions at the Amtrak maintenance facility in Rensselaer will be eliminated at the end of October as the passenger railroad shifts some work to a larger maintenance base in Washington, D.C., an Amtrak spokesman said Wednesday.
A preventive maintenance line for passenger cars will be moved to the Washington facility, which has more resources, said spokesman Cliff Black.
“It has nothing to do with the quality of work in Rensselaer, which is very good,” he said.
Locomotive maintenance and some passenger car “turnaround” work will stay in Rensselaer, but Black wasn’t immediately able to say how large a work force will be based locally.
The facility is believed to employ about 140 people.
Black said the affected workers are eligible to relocate. “It is possible, through retirements and transfers to some other positions in Rensselaer, that we won’t lose 17 employees,” he said. “It could affect as few as half of those.”
Those losing their jobs would be eligible for recall and would continue to get benefits for four months after they’re furloughed, Black said. “We’re going to try to find work for those who are qualified,” he added.
The railroad has been under pressure to streamline its operations and to cut costs. On Tuesday, Amtrak announced it was going ahead with a fare increase that will take effect in October.
The Rensselaer shops were built in the mid-1970s to repair and maintain a then-new fleet of turbotrains that operated along the Empire Corridor across New York state. They also performed light maintenance work on passenger cars and locomotive overhauls.