News

Rail Vehicle Training Consortium Holds First Live Meeting

Posted April 2016

Hosted by the Charlotte Area Transit Authority (CATS), the National Rail Car Training Consortium held its first live meeting last week, March 22 - 25, in Charlotte, NC. The consortium brings together 12 public transportation agencies and their unions from across the country (listed below) to create a standardized training program for rail vehicle maintainers.

Rail Car Training Consortium Members - Current and Pending

Agency

Union
Bay Area Rapid Transit

SEIU Local 1021
San Francisco MTA (MUNI)

IBEW Local 6
Maryland MTA

ATU Local 1300
MBTA (Boston)

ATU Local 589
SEPTA (Philadelphia)

TWU Local 234
Los Angeles MTA (Pending)

ATU Local 1277 (Pending)
Denver RTD

ATU Local 1001
San Diego MTS

IBEW Local 465
NFTA (Buffalo, NY)

ATU Local 1342
Greater Cleveland RTA

ATU Local 268
Charlotte Area Transit System

N/A
PATCO (New Jersey)

IBT 676

Although this was the first time the subject matter experts and Center staff met face to face, they have been working on courseware development via webinar since January 2016 as well as working with Center staff on implementing apprenticeship at their locations.

At this productive four day meeting, consortium members:

  Reviewed drafts of six modules of courseware content
  Started development on inspection and maintenance (and to some degree troubleshooting) courses
  Reviewed and suggested changes to the nationally recognized training standards for rail vehicle technicians
  Discussed the order of instruction for rail vehicle specific courses within this training program
  Learned the meaning of general instructional design terminologies and how they apply to the rail vehicle consortium
  Reviewed Training Needs Analysis Results and helped to fill in the holes - especially around apprenticeship
  Determined dates and locations for six pilots
  Reviewed Rail Car Registered Apprenticeship framework and discussed local implementation successes and challenges

For more information on the rail vehicle training consortium, contacting Xinge Wang.