COEN77 wrote: They'll always be a need for a train dispatcher wether the railroad is running 3 trains or 30 trains a day on a specific line. It that regards if there is any such thing as job security on the railroad train dispatchers would have a better chance.
There's the rub, If the railroad is only running 3 trains a day on the line, they will cut that dispatcher's job off and combine it with another territory as is happening more and more often. I have been in our dispatch office for over 10 years now and we have lost 12 positions in 10 years - no one has been furloughed, but every time you move up a little in seniority another job goes and you are right back where you started. At least in T&E service they can put new trains on when business picks up, once a dispatch position is gone, they never put a job back on, no matter how much business picks up or how busy the desk gets. The original poster did not say what railroad he was applying for, but at least on NS your seniority roster only covers the office you are working in. There is no moving from office to office. The new national agreement will cover the dispatchers on CSXT and BNSF, NS dispatchers are under a seperate (and might I add worse) on property agreement with the NS and are not covered under the national agreement except as it applies to Health and Welfare.
As for pay scale, you have a 5 year step rate where you make 80%-85%-90%-95% etc of what the basic days pay is for your craft. Once you have the years in for the step rate every dispatcher no matter what their term of service is makes the same daily rate as per the contract. Having been both in T&E and a dispatcher, I can say there are pros and cons to both jobs, neither is a bed of roses. As a disptcher, expect to spend much more time on the extra list than you probably would as a conductor, depending on how "old" the office is seniority wise and how many retirements are coming up (and how many jobs are cut), you should expect to wait at least 5 years or more until you can hold a regular job, and maybe as many as 10 years. The extra list life is not quite as bad as it is for T&E folks, in that there are only 3 shifts a day you can be called for, but be prepared to not know your work schedule more than a day or two in advance for many years to come - it can be hard on your home life.