Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters

Moderate Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.0/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

58% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Critical thinking

Quite important
Why this matters
Weigh options using logic and evidence, spot weaknesses in arguments, and choose the best approach when there isn’t a single clear answer.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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What users think

Based on 107 votes

59% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 58% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters was $74,080 ($36 per hour).

The median annual wage for Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters was 49.7% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters' job openings is expected to rise 1.1% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 42,710 people employed as 'Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 3 thousand people are employed as 'Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
Xeis (Uncertain)
13 Jul 2025 03:39
The actual job of conductor could be easy to automate, but you can’t leave a train doing hundred of miles with thousand people inside without a human in case of any problem, so yes the train will be mostly auto drived but there will still be a « human conductor »
Delelibird (No chance)
21 Jun 2025 17:18
If railways barely get extensions and upgrades on time then it’ll be 1000s of years until ai equipment is cost effective for them
chase (Low)
07 Oct 2024 13:14
its mostly labor intense and i do not see the risks at all.
EFS (Highly likely)
23 Nov 2022 17:13
Trains can be entirely operated with a database system if all rail is connected by internet or other computing systems.

Far easier than self-driving cars as railway lines are already pretty connected in terms of IT.

The challenge isn't much, all things considered.

The first step will be remote-control management of trains, with one person operating 10 or so trains. Eventually, they will be fully replaced with perhaps one person overseeing an entire company's trains.
Fred (Highly likely)
14 Apr 2021 04:58
I work for a class I railroad and positive train control has been in use on our engines for about 3 years. It stops the train if the engineer doesn't. A large part of an over the road freight conductor duties are to be a second set of eyes and to stop the train if something happens to the engineer. We do have other duties that are important and won't be replaced by robots anytime soon. Will we be replaced by robots soon? Probably not but partially yes.
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Job description

Coordinate activities of switch-engine crew within railroad yard, industrial plant, or similar location. Conductors coordinate activities of train crew on passenger or freight trains. Yardmasters review train schedules and switching orders and coordinate activities of workers engaged in railroad traffic operations, such as the makeup or breakup of trains and yard switching.

O*NET-SOC code: 53-4031.00