Amtrak is looking to hire individuals who will restore agent staffing at 15 stations in 12 states, responding to a congressional mandate to do so.
The passenger railroad says in a statement that “These uniformed workers will be trained to assist our customers with booking and boarding trains, including helping with unaccompanied minors, carry-on baggage and providing information on the status of arriving and departing services. These employees will be scheduled to meet customers for all trains.
“Applications for these Customer Service Representative positions will be available online at jobs.Amtrak.com. We will work to fill these jobs as quickly as possible, first by posting them internally.”
The stations to regain agents are Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Texarkana, Ark.; Maricopa, Ariz.; Fort Madison and Ottumwa, Iowa; Garden City and Topeka, Kan.; Hammond, La.; Meridian, Miss.; Havre and Shelby, Mont.; Lamy, N.M.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Marshall, Texas, and Charleston, W.Va. Because of the train times involved, stations in Garden City, Topeka, and Cincinnati will not offer the services Amtrak requires to carry minors ages 13-15 traveling on their own, which it only allows under certain conditions outlined here.
The return of the station agents is in response to the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which was passed by Congress and became law in December 2019; among its provisions was one requiring Amtrak to provide a ticket agent at every station that had agent positions eliminated in fiscal 2018.
