Right now not a single GO train has 2 engineers. Even though they refer to us all as Train Operators only 1 is actually a qualified engineer. An engineer can work as a conductor but a conductor cannot work as an engineer A conductor can work as a CSA but a CSA cannot work as a conductor.
There is a total of 66 qualified engineers. Currently there are 54 jobs in operation. Provisions must be made for a 'spare board'. Those on the spare board are called in to work when another employee is off for vacation or a day of rest. We currently have 7 people on the spare board which is dangerously low, typically close to 20% is preferable, meaning there should really be around 11-12. The 5 others are off for various other reasons (health concerns, suspensions, unknown). The 7 on the spare board can only cover 5 days each (=35 man days total per week). On average 3 engineers per week are off on vacation for each week of the year (-15 man days) and we each get 2 sick days a year (66x2=132 total for work force/52 weeks = 2.5). That leaves 17.5 days. Meaning that over the course of a 7 day week the spare board is currently sufficient to cover for 2-3 unplanned absences per day. That's a pretty slim margin considering how GO prides itself on providing reliable service. Luckily there are many employees who are more than willing to take overtime by working on their off days.
The Niagara service added 2 jobs to the total, without which the base total for regular service is now 52. That number is down from last year when there was 55 jobs (57 or 58 with Niagara). Of course there have been no service cuts. So what gives? Efficiency? Definitely not. Not when you end up paying more for operations. By cutting off those 3 jobs (about 26 hrs total - the average job was 8:30) you just added on average 1/2hr in OT to every other job. The reason of course is the crewing shortage. The first batch of new conductors (meaning those who were hired without any prior railway experience and had to wait 2 years due to CN & transport Canada provisions) were Qualified at the start of the year. 6 new engineers were added, unfortunately 8 or 9 engineers left in that same period (retirement, VIA)
Bombardier has an open ad for engineers on their web site. Its been up for 3 years. However aside from a large batch of CP & ONR layoffs 18 or so months ago they have had difficultly recruiting any more experienced engineers.
Knowing this, they have continued to prod along with the training program. There is a group of 6 engineers in training that will be available come summer time. Following that another group of 4 will be ready 6 months later around the new year. However its expected that there will be a few more retirements and possibly a few more may leave for VIA. Considering that, its likely that in the course of 2011 they will have added a net total of 6-7 engineers (meaning 6-7 new jobs will be possible). Disappointing considering the plan was to train 12 at a time but unfortunately they didn't plan for any contingencies.
The 5th Barrie train will take one and the Kitchener trains will take 2 (unless they are simply extending 2 of the Georgetown trains). That would leave between 3-6. However I wouldn't expect any more runs since they really do need to top up the spare board to appropriate levels (10-13).
These new engineers could have been ready 9 months before they actually were (i.e. when they had gotten their 2 years in) But they couldn't allow the conductors to start training as engineers because they had a shortage of them! Which they have no excuse for since its much more easier train a conductor (6 months) than it is an engineer (2.5 years min). Fortunately they have recently expedited the training of new conductors. Basically they've finally got their act together and by the start of next year 10-12 conductors at a time will begin their engineer training. After 6 month of training, they'll be added to the pool of engineers(next summer). Only then will we likely see more significant service increases.
