Well, Amtrak doesn't run in my area, so I'll have to ask a conductor next time I travel. I do have the email address of a Boston-based conductor I met on Acela last year, so I might check with him.

How do seniority districts work on Amtrak? Are things pretty uniform around the system? Or are contracts and wages very different between different areas of the country? Once you're hired in one area (say, if I apply for an opening in, oh, Atlanta), how would it work to move to another area (like L.A.) when an opening comes up? Is it tantamount to reapplying for the job, or is it just a simple bid?

Sorry, my railroad is small enough that we're all in one seniority bucket, and there's no such thing as separate districts, so I'm not familiar with big railroads where T&E employees are broken up into what it seems to me to be more or less completely separate operations.

According to the latest Trains magazine (or an update on its Web site--I forget which), it looks like Alexander Kummant envisions at least the maintaining the same if not creating an even more vibrant Amtrak system. That combined with the new majority in Congress gives me some hope that Amtrak won't die off just yet. (I wouldn't normally be happy about the election results, but as far as it affects my future job prospects, I am slightly relieved; however, I don't mean for this turn into a political discussion.)