Run freight and passenger trains across the country. The railway hires you first, then trains you.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $104,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $69,000 at the lower end to about $143,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
3 to 6 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
From nothing up to about $500, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$104,000
Lower end
$69,000
Upper end
$143,000
Job Bank's national median is $50 an hour, about $104,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($33) and upper end ($68.85) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Pay is often worked out as a mileage and trip rate rather than by the hour.
$56.09 an hour
The median in Ontario, about $117,000 a year
British Columbia is next at $54. Quebec has the lowest median, $43. You do not pay for training: the railway hires you as a conductor and pays you while it trains you.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $500
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
There is no tuition. The railway hires you first and trains you, and the medical and drug screening are paid by the employer in most cases. The high end covers a medical exam you might have to pay for yourself and a few small incidentals, nothing more. What this job really costs is not money: training can send you out of province for weeks, and the work usually means living where the trains are and being on call.
A Job Bank median of about $104,000 with no tuition bill attached. The cost is paid in lifestyle, not dollars.
Pension
The big railways run long-standing pension plans.
Union protection
Running-trades crews are represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which negotiates pay, rest and discipline rules.
Health, dental and vision
Away-from-home expenses
Meals and lodging are covered when a run ends far from your home terminal.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
No degree. The railway hires you, trains you, and certifies you. Getting hired is the hard part.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 is the normal requirement. You also need to be 18 or older and pass a medical, hearing, vision and drug screen.
Get hired as a conductor
Months of waiting is normal
Almost everyone enters the running trades as a conductor first. Postings go up at the big freight railways, short lines and passenger operators.
Conductor training and qualifying
About 5 to 8 months
Paid classroom and on-the-job training, then a certification exam. The federal rules set a pass mark of 80% in the required subjects.
Work the road as a conductor
2 to 5 years, sometimes longer
You build seniority. Promotion to engineer depends on how busy your terminal is, which can be a couple of years or many.
Locomotive engineer training
About 6 months
Classroom, simulator and supervised time at the controls, signed off by an examiner. Then you are certified to run the train.
Math
Train handling is constant arithmetic: tonnage, grade, braking distance.
Physics
A loaded freight train is momentum you cannot cheat.
English or French
You memorize and apply a thick rule book, and radio communication has to be exact.
Shop or technology
Helps with basic mechanical troubleshooting out on the line.
Rail is a federal business, so Transport Canada sets the rules, not the provinces. Under the Railway Employee Qualification Standards Regulations, locomotive engineers and conductors must pass training and an examination at 80% or better, and must be re-examined at least every three years at the same standard. You also hold a card showing you are qualified on the operating rules for your territory. Fail the medical or the rules exam and you are off the train until you fix it.
The big freight railways
CN (Canadian National Railway) and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City system run coast-to-coast networks and hire the most crews.
Passenger and commuter rail
Via Rail Canada, the Metrolinx commuter network in Ontario, Exo in Quebec and West Coast Express in BC (British Columbia).
Short lines and industrial railways
Regional carriers, mines, ports and grain terminals. Smaller crews, often closer to home.
Quebec has a French-language college program for conductors, the usual first step toward the cab. Certification is federal and the same as in the rest of Canada.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
A Secondary School Diploma (DES) is the usual requirement for the running trades.
Optional: train conductor AEC (Attestation of College Studies)
About 6 months
Rail Transport, Train Conductors (RNA.06) at Cégep de Sept-Îles: 585 hours from September to March, in French, with internships. You must be 18 by the internship. No job is guaranteed.
Get hired as a conductor
Months
Freight railways, passenger operators and mining railways hire. Expect a medical exam, colour vision, sight and hearing tests and a drug test.
Federal certification
Months
Your employer trains and examines you under Transport Canada rules, and you renew the certificate every 3 years.
Move up to locomotive engineer
Years
Quebec asks for conductor experience and the Canadian rail operating rules certificate, as everywhere else.
Figures from the Quebec government's occupation profile.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Qualifying on more territory
Every subdivision you are qualified on is more work you can be called for.
Dangerous goods training
Required for many freight assignments and useful anywhere in transport.
Locomotive engineer instructor or examiner
Train and sign off new hires. Steadier hours than road work.
Moving into management or rules
Trainmaster, road manager and safety roles are usually filled from the running trades.
A clean driving and criminal record
Both are checked. This is a safety-critical job.
Shift-work experience
Any job where you have worked nights proves you can do it.
A rail or heavy industry background
Yard, mechanical or track work gets your application noticed.
Willingness to relocate
The single biggest thing that gets people hired.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
There is no typical start time. You are on a call board and the phone rings with about two hours' notice, day or night. You book on, review the train paperwork and the tonnage, test the brakes, then take the train out. Hours of watching signals, reading the track, handling throttle and dynamic brake on grades, and talking to the rail traffic controller. The run ends at an away terminal where you sleep in a bunkhouse or hotel, then you work a train back. Holidays and birthdays land wherever the call board puts them.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Railway Association of Canada puts the national network at close to 43,000 kilometres. A single crew can cover several hundred kilometres of it in one shift.
Job Bank counted only about 6,200 locomotive engineers working in Canada in 2023, and 27% of them were 50 or older. Most move up from conductor.
Transport Canada says an 88-car freight train of 13,000 tonnes at 96 km/h needs about two kilometres to stop, even in perfect weather. Engineers plan braking long before they can see the problem.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Rail first, then the rest of the field. See every career in transport.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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