Amtrak Commits To Hire More Veterans

25 percent of new hires to be service members; Locomotive honoring veterans unveiled

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Jun 26, 2013, 12:45 ET

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman is announcing today that America's Railroad^® is setting a goal of 25 percent of new hires to be veterans by 2015. Sen. Joe Manchin, Rep. Jeff Denham and Michael L. Rhodes with the Office of the Secretary of Defense will join him at a ceremony to announce this hiring initiative and unveil a locomotive to honor veterans.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130626/DC38700 )

"The leadership, reliability and high-tech skills veterans bring to the job are a great resource to the operation of America's Railroad," said Boardman, a Vietnam veteran. "I'm honored and proud to add more of our country's service men and women to the Amtrak team."

To meet this goal, Amtrak is partnering with recruiting groups that focus on veteran hiring, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Hiring our Heroes, the Wounded Warrior Project, RecruitMilitary and Army PaYS.

In addition, the Amtrak Human Capital department is participating in more than 30 military job fairs across the country. To meet the demand of employee vacancies due to retirement and new projects, America's Railroad expects to hire more than 3,000 employees over the next year. In fiscal year 2012, more than 14 percent of new hires were veterans.

Amtrak has a long history of providing career opportunities to veterans and active military members, and values the high-tech and innovative skills that are often transferable to positions in engineering, mechanical and customer service, among others. To view profiles of Amtrak veteran employees, visit Blog.Amtrak.com.

To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Vietnam War and honor those that have served, Amtrak painted a locomotive red, white and blue with a specially designed "America's Railroad Salutes Our Veterans" logo and 50 stars around the bottom to honor the anniversary. Locomotive 42, in celebration of Amtrak's 42^nd year of service, was painted as part of a regularly scheduled upgrade at the Amtrak Beech Grove Indiana maintenance facility and will be used to pull trains in revenue service on routes throughout the country.

For information on career opportunities at Amtrak, visit Amtrak.com/VeteransCareers. Connect with Amtrak on Twitter @Amtrak using the hashtag #AmtrakVets and on LinkedIn.

Note for media: Photos and video are available by contacting Amtrak Media Relations at 202-906-3860 or [email protected].

SOURCE Amtrak