The “SMART” commuter railroad plans to go back to voters for more money to increase the anemic service levels. One reason they cannot afford to run a proper schedule is the dismal labor productivity. For example, running trains with both a train driver and conductor:
With the dearth of engineers, SMART will also seek to hire conductors to take the place of a second engineer on the trains. The move creates a bigger candidate pool to ensure that two staff persons are on the train at all times. A conductor is certified to assist with certain train movements, but aren’t qualified to operate the train. They would be paired with an engineer. Because the conductor job class is lower in pay than the engineer, there would be savings to the agency. Conductors would earn a maximum of $34 an hour or $70,720 annually.
Train conductors are an anachronism; modern 21st-century DMU operations don’t have them anymore. The only task for a conductor these days is punching tickets — a job that is better done with occasional POP inspection.