Operate subway or streetcar trains on set routes, following signals and keeping to schedule while carrying passengers safely.
Transit systems, in train cabs and stations
Rotating shifts, including nights and weekends
May 2024–25 BLS wage data · 2024–34 BLS employment projections.
Openings a year counts new jobs plus the ones that open when people retire or move on — a truer picture of your odds than growth alone.
“Median” means half earn more and half earn less. Your city, employer, and years on the job move it a lot — that is what the 10th-to-90th range shows.
High school / no degree
Training path: Paid transit training after high school.
No license is required, and operators are trained and certified by the transit agency that hires them.
You can earn while you train. This field has a genuinely paid pathway in — an apprenticeship, a paid academy, or employer-funded training — so you draw a paycheck instead of taking on debt to learn it.
Drives passenger trains for a transit system, a job distinct from bus drivers and from the locomotive engineers who run freight and long-distance trains.
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Standard Occupational Classification 53-4041. Pay, employment, and outlook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS wage survey and 2024–34 employment projections). See something off? Tell us.