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National Signals Training Consortium Expands Efforts

Posted May 2015

The National Signals Training Consortium (Consortium) met in Denver during the last week of April. While the first priority was courseware development, finding qualified recruits was a topic of intense discussion. Representatives to the Consortium determined that partnering with Original Equipment Manufacturers and educational institutions will be essential to creating a pipeline of qualified individuals for signal maintenance jobs. The Consortium established a Partnership Committee to delve more deeply into the issue.

The Partnership Committee held its first meeting by conference call on May 20, 2013. The organizing meeting was chaired by Anthony Forcina from Metro North Railroad. Joining Anthony on the call were Gary Tegler of Niagara Frontier, Frank Burnett from MBTA, Harry Baumann representing the Long Island Rail Road, Jim Hansen of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen for Metra in Chicago, Jim Lindsay, Co-Chair of the Consortium and President of ATU local 1277 in Los Angeles and Ed Kawecki from the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.

As a first action item the Committee determined that each member would reach out to local technical schools, high schools and community colleges to determine their interest in establishing curriculum designed to prepare students for signal maintainer occupations using the Consortium developed courseware. The purpose is to establish an educational pipeline that can feed qualified applicants to public transportation agencies for further specific signals maintenance training. The results of this effort will be reported back to the Committee at its next meeting.