(Reuters circulated the following article by Nick Carey on February 22.)
CHENOA, Illinois — Conductor Ed Kavanaugh is weary.
Not because of the biting wind and driving snow, or the oppressive roar of the locomotive as it rumbles across America’s agricultural heartland. Not even because it’s a 14-hour day. It goes much deeper than that — he is nearing the end of the line.
“I’ve been working for the railroads since 1974,” the 57-year-old Kavanaugh said, brushing snow off his jacket as he steps into the locomotive cab. “When I turn 60, I’m gone.”
“And I can’t wait!” he added with a laugh.
Like thousands of aging U.S. railroad workers, Kavanaugh and locomotive engineer Phil Tidwell, 60, have met or will soon meet the legal requirements allowing them to retire after 30 years on the rails.
A day with these two men on the TPW — the Toledo, Peoria & Western railroad, a 369-mile stretch of track run by Fortress Investment Group (FIG.N: Quote) unit RailAmerica Inc., owner of around 47 U.S. and Canadian “short lines” — illustrates the daunting task U.S. railroads face in replacing thousands of veteran workers.
“We started hiring aggressively around four years ago,” said Wick Moorman, Chief Executive Officer of railroad Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC.N: Quote). “We’re trying to get enough experienced people out on the tracks so we can cope.”
For 20 years after deregulation in 1980, U.S. railroads mostly cut staff and did little hiring. But now business is booming thanks to rising U.S. imports, soaring demand for coal from utilities, plus increased ethanol shipments. The railroads have hired thousands to handle that business, but they must also teach a new generation of employees to operate the trains — a tricky and hazardous job.
On this particular day, Tidwell and Kavanaugh depart East Peoria in central Illinois with 47 rail cars stretching more than half a mile behind them, making stops to drop off hundreds of tons of soybeans or corn gluten meal, plus picking up empty cars for delivery elsewhere.
It’s well below freezing, with winds gusting up to 30 miles an hour by the time they turn around in Fairbury, 60 miles east of their starting point. The snow falls almost horizontally.
“Life on the railroad looks to many youngsters like fun,” said Kavanaugh as he climbed into the warm cab, face reddened by the wind and glasses fogged over from the temperature change. “But their first cold spell like this they want to go home to Mom.”
Like many rail workers themselves, rail analyst Tony Hatch of New York-based ABH Consulting describes the job as an “outdoor sport.”
“Replacing this aging workforce will be a significant challenge for the railroads,” he said.
But Hatch and some investors say the railroads have taken the problem seriously enough and are taking the right steps.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
With combined experience of 71 years, Tidwell and Kavanaugh understand each other well — though they have only worked together for two weeks.
At one point, Kavanaugh is nearly swept off the back of the train by low-hanging branches as he guides Tidwell into a siding.
But his voice on the radiophone, while loud enough to be heard over the wind, shows little alarm: “That’ll do, that’ll do.”
Tidwell hits the brake immediately, and the train grinds to a halt.
A typical stop is the town of Chenoa, about 45 miles from East Peoria, where the crew drop off 10 cars of corn gluten meal, a livestock feed before hooking up five empties.
The sulfurous rotten-egg smell of a sewage treatment plant hangs in the air as Kavanaugh makes his way slowly in a perfect duck walk, toes sticking outward in the snow and loose stones of the rail bed.
“If you’re not careful, it’s easy to get hurt out here,” he says.
Kavanaugh advises against being in too much of a rush, as it is unsafe and makes you sweat.
“If you sweat, you’re wet,” he said. “If you then get cold, you can’t work.”
Tidwell loves trains, he says, as he smokes in the locomotive cab, calmly following Kavanaugh’s radio instructions as they shunt cars in and out of sidings.
A native of Wyoming, Tidwell is one of five “floating” engineers at RailAmerica, whose job it is to plug gaps in the workforce while the company seeks replacement engineers. With 38 years’ experience, he is eligible for retirement, but remains one of a tiny minority who stay on.
Michael Ward, CEO of railroad CSX Corp. (CSX.N: Quote), said the company plans to hire 1,000 workers in 2007, but adds “with attrition, our headcount (of 36,000) will remain almost unchanged.”
Don Hodges of the Dallas-based Hodges Fund, which manages assets of roughly $1 billion and holds shares in U.S. railroads Union Pacific Corp. (UNP.N: Quote), Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI.N: Quote), Norfolk Southern and Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR.TO: Quote), said railroads have “had difficulty hiring crews.”
“But I’m confident the railroads are doing what it takes to address this problem,” Hodges said.