To get hired at Amtrak you apply online through the Amtrak Careers site, wait for the employment team to review your application, and then, for most positions, sit a behavioral based panel interview. A conditional offer follows, and the job is confirmed once you complete a background check investigation and drug testing. Amtrak does not publish an aptitude test anywhere in that process.
Amtrak, formally the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is the only intercity passenger railroad in the United States, and was created by Congress in 1970. It employs more than 20,000 people and runs more than 21,400 miles of routes serving over 500 destinations in 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian provinces. In FY2025 its customers took 34.5 million trips, an all time record for both ridership and revenue.
The Amtrak Application Process
Amtrak does not publish a numbered stage list. What it does set out, on its applicant information page, is the sequence below.
Jobs At Amtrak
Amtrak groups its openings into Operations, Customer Service, Engineering, Mechanical, Skilled Labor, Information Technology, Corporate and more. Railroad Operations, the family most candidates are looking for, covers Conductors and Assistant Conductors, Locomotive Engineers and Train Dispatchers.
Which family you apply into matters more than it looks, because the requirements, the medical standards, the training and the rate all sit on the individual posting rather than on a company wide policy.
Applying Online
Every application goes through the Amtrak Careers site. You create a profile, find the position you want and apply there.
Amtrak is explicit that this is the only route in. You must fill out the online application to be considered for any type of position, and resumes that are mailed, emailed or hand delivered to Amtrak or to an Amtrak employee will not be considered. You receive an email confirmation for every job you apply for.
Application Review
The employment team reviews your application and notifies you by email if you have been selected to take part in the next step of the recruiting process. Amtrak publishes no timescale for this stage.
The Amtrak Interview
For most positions Amtrak uses behavioral based interviewing techniques in a panel interview format, and it has moved to virtual interviews where applicable.
Panel format means several people question you in the same session. Behavioral means the questions ask what you have actually done rather than what you would hypothetically do, so every answer needs to be a real example with a real outcome attached to it.
Amtrak publishes three company values, do the right thing, put customers first and excel together, and says they sit alongside its core and leadership capabilities to focus on the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to be effective there. Prepare one worked example for each value, then a further example for each competency named in the posting itself.
Conditional Offer, Background Check And Drug Testing
An Amtrak offer is conditional. Applicants must be willing to complete a background check investigation successfully, to submit to legally permissible drug testing on the conditional offer of employment and during employment as appropriate, and to submit acceptable documents on the first day of employment as proof of identity and authorization to be employed in the United States.
Amtrak Conductor Requirements And Training
Conductor is the role candidates ask about most, and it is the one Amtrak sets out in the most detail.
A live Passenger Conductor Trainee posting lists these minimum qualifications:
- High school diploma or GED
- Two years of full time verifiable work experience or college coursework, with a combination of the two accepted
- Demonstrated work experience showing responsibility, initiative and other leadership characteristics
- A current valid driver's license
- Living within a two hour commute of the crew base
- The ability to lift 50lbs, and to meet the Federal Railroad Administration standards for vision, color vision and hearing set out in 49 CFR 242
The commute rule and the medical standards are the two that catch people out. Both are pass or fail, and neither is negotiable, so check them before you spend time on an application.
Customer service experience involving cash handling, and basic mechanical experience, appear on the same posting as preferred qualifications rather than requirements. They are things Amtrak would like you to arrive with. Amtrak publishes no test on either subject, and you should not read them as a syllabus.
Training At The National Training Center
Amtrak states that some jobs, including Conductor, Engineer and Dispatcher, require completion of a rigorous training program of at least eight weeks at its National Training Center in Wilmington, Delaware.
The live conductor trainee posting is more specific and slightly shorter: training lasting seven to eight weeks in Wilmington, blending classroom instruction with hands on fieldwork, followed by extensive on the job training at your assigned crew base. Where the two disagree, go by the posting you are applying to.
The Extra Board
On completing training, new conductors are placed on the extra board. The extra board is the pool of qualified crew who cover assignments not held by a regular crew member, so in your first period on the job your hours are set by what needs covering rather than by a fixed roster. Plan for that before you accept, particularly alongside the two hour commute requirement.
Amtrak Pay And Benefits
Amtrak does not publish a company wide pay scale, and pay in most operations roles is set by union agreement rather than advertised as an average. Individual postings do state a rate, and that is the number to go by.
The live Passenger Conductor Trainee posting referred to above states an hourly rate of $24.38, and is a union position. That is one posting, for one role, at one crew base. It is not an Amtrak average, and a trainee rate is not the rate a qualified conductor holds. Read the rate off the posting you are applying to.
Amtrak Benefits
Amtrak publishes its benefits by category. They include:
- Rail pass travel privileges: you, your spouse and eligible dependents are entitled to unlimited free and reduced rate rail transportation on Amtrak, plus discounts from other travel industry providers
- Service award trips
- Vacation and holiday benefits
- Family and medical leave
- Health and wellness
- Local perks
- Tax free accounts and income protection
- Retirement: railroad employees pay taxes under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act rather than the Social Security Act, which Amtrak states provides a higher retirement benefit
- A 401(k)
- Education assistance: after six months of service Amtrak may provide financial assistance if you wish to pursue a formal course of study for professional development
- Voluntary benefits
Amtrak Assessments And Practice Tests
This is the part candidates ask about most and the part Amtrak says least about, so it is worth being exact.
Amtrak's only published statement about assessments is a willingness requirement in its applicant information: applicants must be willing to pass pre- and post-hire qualification assessments that may be required for the position to which they are applying.
That is the whole of it. Amtrak does not name a test, describe a format, give a question count or a time limit, or name a test publisher, and live postings across its operations, mechanical and corporate job families do not mention assessments at all. Its published selection method for most roles is the behavioral based panel interview described above.
Read the phrase carefully, because it says pre- and post-hire. Part of what it covers is qualification testing you sit after you are hired, during training and in order to hold the job, rather than a screening test standing between you and an interview.
So there is no named Amtrak aptitude test to revise for, and any site that claims to reproduce one is guessing. What is worth doing is general reasoning practice. It sharpens the thinking the role and the training call for, and it transfers directly to the other applications you are making alongside this one:
- Numerical reasoning for working quickly and accurately with timetables, tables and percentages
- Verbal reasoning for reading rules and procedures precisely, which is a large part of conductor training
- Mechanical reasoning for the physical principles behind braking, gears, levers and hydraulics, useful background for mechanical and engineering roles
- Situational judgement for judgement in workplace scenarios, which is the closest thing in format to a behavioral interview question
Treat these as general practice rather than as a replica of anything Amtrak administers, because Amtrak does not say what, if anything, it administers.
Tips To Get Hired At Amtrak
Build Your Answers Around The Published Values
Amtrak's three values, do the right thing, put customers first and excel together, are the clearest published signal of what a behavioral panel is listening for. Prepare a specific example for each of them before you prepare anything else.
Use The STAR Method
Behavioral questions reward structure. Begin with the Situation, describe the Task you had to complete, list the Actions you personally took, and finish with the Result, ideally something you can put a number on. Say what you did, not what the team did.
Read The Posting As The Specification
Amtrak's requirements sit on the posting, not on a company wide page. The crew base and its two hour commute radius, the medical standards, the rate and the competencies are all stated there, and they change from posting to posting. Confirm you clear every requirement before you apply, because the first review is against the minimum criteria.
Research The Company
Go beyond the job description. Amtrak's own newsroom and its route and service announcements will tell you what the business is trying to do and where it is investing, and the wider railroad industry is worth a look too.
You will usually get the chance to ask your own questions at the end of a panel interview, and that is one of the few moments where you control the impression you leave.
