(The following story by Dan Schneider appeared on the Mining Gazette website on February 11.)
HOUGHTON, Kan. — Students graduating from Michigan Technological University’s new Rail Transportation Program are likely to find jobs available in an industry that is picking up steam.
Lisa Weldon, manager of professional recruiting at CSX, said the rail freight industry is growing as manufacturers look to rail as a more efficient means of transportation.
Pasi Lautala, director of the new program at Tech, said it costs three times as much to move a ton of material by semi truck as it costs to move the same amount of freight by rail.
The rail industry is also ripe for a hiring boom. According to Weldon, about 40 percent of the rail industry’s aging management workforce is set to retire over the next five to seven years.
Brent Marsh, president of the Railroad Engineering and Activities Club at Tech, said the availability of jobs is a major part of his interest in a future career in the rail industry.
“I’m interested in railroads because of the opportunities that they give,” Marsh said. “There are plenty of job opportunities that are about to arise in railroads for people who are taking courses in railroads now.
“That, and I’ve always enjoyed trains and I’m a little bit of a railfan myself.”
Marsh said he has not yet decided whether he wants to work in the freight or the passenger sector of the rail industry. Lautala said the new program at Tech covers skills applicable to both sectors.
He said the seeds are in place to generate growth in passenger rail, as well as freight. Lautala said Americans recognize passenger rail has the potential to reduce congestion and increase sustainability in urban areas, and he believes a broader cultural viewpoint shift could soon bring wider popularity to passenger rail.
“Maybe U.S. people are finally starting to realize that taking the train to work instead of sitting in traffic for an hour is a quality of life issue,” Lautala said.
Long distance rail travel has advantages, too, Lautala said, pointing to problems of congestion, cost and security associated with air travel.
“These are all things that are hopefully going to push this country to build some high-speed rail lines at selected locations where it makes sense,” he said.
Since high-speed passenger trains require more intensely-engineered rails than those currently in existence in the United States, Lautala said the necessary rail construction would spur more job creation in the industry.