ITLC Update: May 1, 2025

May 1, 2025

Strengthening Transit and Commuter Rail Signal Maintainer Training Through Collaboration

Subject matter experts and Instructional Designers from ITLC’s Signals Consortium have recently updated its courses to better reflect the latest industry standards. The course materials now include enhanced new technologies, expanded learning activities, and refreshed content. The team has been meeting twice a week over the past year to make the upgrades and has collaborated with experts from across the industry to share their expertise on track circuits, switches, derails, and grade crossings. The revised training materials will help to better prepare signal maintainers for their jobs.

The revised courses now include:

Signals 101: Introduction and Overview of Track Circuits – Now includes a section on Coded Track Circuits and Train Identification Equipment, ensuring that learners engage with technologies currently in use across transit agencies
Signals 102: Introduction and Overview of Switches and Derails – Expanded coverage of Basic Terminology, new guidance on communicating with Maintenance of Way teams, and updates on Solenoid Operated Switch Machines
Signals 104: Introduction and Overview of Grade Crossings – Added depth to gate mechanism operations and fail-safe principles, along with a wider variety of machine images to better represent the diversity of equipment used across the industry

The Signals Consortium, one of ITLC’s Rail Maintenance Training Consortiums, has restarted its bi-weekly webinars to achieve its 2025 goal of updating the Signals 100 orientation course and migrating it to an eLearning platform. For more information about ITLC’s Signals Consortiums courseware and how to join the group, contact Kristen Ribaudo at kribaudo@transportcenter.org.

ITLC Powers Up MBTA Rail Maintenance Instructor Development

From April 7 to 11, ITLC brought its Train-the-Trainer program to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) at its modern and well-equipped Green Line Inner Belt Carhouse. Ten MBTA rail maintenance instructors from both light and heavy rail divisions engaged in the intensive week-long course facilitated by Program Manager of Technical Assistance and Training Amri Joyner and Senior Advisor for Workforce Development and Technology Jason Macumber.

Built on a solid foundation of adult learning principles, the four-and-a-half-day program emphasized practical application through effective methods, tools, and guidelines. A key component involved numerous hands-on training sessions, allowing participants to immediately implement their learning using their own materials and expertise. Throughout these scenarios, MBTA instructors received valuable constructive feedback from their peers and course facilitators.

MBTA Level 1 Train-the-Trainer course instructors and participants

Post-course evaluations highlighted the program's effectiveness, instructor expertise, and course format and instructional style. One participant noted how they gained “confidence in my training delivery due to constructive/positive feedback,” while another emphasized instructors “were great at delivering material and keeping the class engaged.”

For more information regarding ITLC’s Train-the-Trainer courses, visit the updated Train-the-Trainer page on the Transit Workforce Center’s website or contact Kristen Ribaudo at kribaudo@transportcenter.org.

Rebuilding the Workforce: ITLC Speaks at the Annual Workforce Mobility Summit

Last week, Senior Workforce Development Advisor Maurice Beard attended the 10th annual Redefining Mobility Summit presented by the Contra Costa County Transit Authority (CCTA). This day-long summit focused on the ongoing progress in the autonomous vehicle space. Maurice was invited to participate in a panel titled, "Building the Workforce of Tomorrow," that featured a range of perspectives, from labor partners to researchers. Emphasizing the importance of reskilling and upskilling the current workforce, the panel explored the role of transit operators, as a number of transit agencies look to the use of autonomous vehicles.

ITLC Services

If your organization is making the transition to new vehicle technologies, consider reaching out to ITLC for support in preparing and transitioning your workforce to operate and maintain these vehicles. With its national expertise, hands-on experience, and a proven track record, ITLC operates as an extension of your team, providing strategic workforce transition planning that aligns staffing, skills, and timelines with your agency’s goals for frontline worker preparedness. Through targeted skills gap analyses, we can help you understand where your workforce stands today and where focused training will deliver the biggest impact.

ITLC can deliver training—onsite, virtually, or in a hybrid mode—so your team gains the knowledge and confidence it needs directly from seasoned transit experts. ITLC’s instructional design team develops customized, standards-based training programs that reflect your agency’s equipment, technology, and service conditions. The programs ensure that technical complexity issues related to high-voltage safety and propulsion systems as well as daily maintenance and operations translate into practical learning that stays with your team members. ITLC’s approach and expertise also supports internal capacity-building through mentorship and leadership training to retain talent and grow your next generation of supervisors and technical leaders.

If your agency is in need of support for workforce transition planning or training efforts for Low-No success and is looking to build a strong and highly-skilled workforce, sign up for an interest session or contact Senior Advisor for Workforce Development and Technology Jason Macumber at jmacumber@transportcenter.org.

Schedule Your Low-No Workforce Solutions Interest Session

Upcoming Webinar

ATTAIN Bus Maintenance Apprenticeship Meeting 

Join TWC’s American Transit Training and Apprenticeship Innovators Network (ATTAIN) on May 21 at 1 pm ET for a virtual meeting to discuss transit maintenance apprenticeship program development and success. This webinar will feature short presentations from your transit peers nationwide highlighting how their apprenticeship programs developed and operate, followed by interactive discussions on the development of mentorship and apprenticeship programs and how they positively impact agencies and the workforce. 

Current members of ATTAIN, representatives of transit agencies of all sizes and types, and transit workforce and education partners are all welcome to attend and engage in exploring apprenticeship and mentorship with your transit peers. For more information about apprenticeships and mentorships, check out TWC’s Apprenticeship and Mentorship page, or contact Karitsa Holdzkom at kholdzkom@transportcenter.org. 

Survey

Last Chance to Provide Input - MTA's Family Care Support Survey

The Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) Emerging Leaders Program is conducting a research project on family care initiatives to support frontline transit employees, including child, elder, and adult dependent care. MTA is inviting transit agencies to complete a short survey to help its research team identify existing initiatives and the benefits of implementing a family care program in the transit workforce. The survey is open until TOMORROW, May 2, at 6 pm ET.

Take the Survey