Career Explorer Construction and trades
Human edge, steady
Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators
Lay, repair, and maintain track for standard or narrow-gauge railroad equipment used in regular railroad service or in plant yards, quarries, sand and gravel pits, and mines. Includes ballast cleaning machine operators and railroad bed tamping machine operators.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 83% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is very low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by +1.5% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on ethical judgement and physical dexterity.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $70,070
- Job growth to 2035
- +1.5%
- Openings a year
- 1,200
- People doing it (2025)
- 17,400
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Operate construction or excavation equipment
- Maintain tools or equipment
- Clean tools, equipment, facilities, or work areas
What the work looks like
- Repair or adjust track switches, using wrenches and replacement parts.
- Patrol assigned track sections so that damaged or broken track can be located and reported.
- Engage mechanisms that lay tracks or rails to specified gauges.
- Cut rails to specified lengths, using rail saws.
- Operate single- or multiple-head spike driving machines to drive spikes into ties and secure rails.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Continuous mining machine operatorsHuman edge, steady, Index 95, +3.2%
- Solar photovoltaic installersHuman edge, growing, Index 99, +36.5%
- Tank car, truck, and ship loadersHuman edge, steady, Index 90, +2.8%
- Extraction workers, all otherHuman edge, steady, Index 89, +3.4%
Also known as: Track Inspector, Track Laborer, Track Maintainer, Track Repairer, Machine Operator, Track Equipment Operator (TEO), Track Repair Person, Track Service Person.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.