Pros
The railroad retirement and pension are great perks, but they benefit you primarily when you retire with the company. (however, in this day in age, how many people are likely to work for the same company for 30 years?) The pay is very reasonable here with decent opportunity for bonuses, when the company plans decently enough. In recent years there seem to be more cross functional collaboration among different parts of the railroad.
Cons
The health insurance has narrowed down to only a consumer-driven health plan, which is great if you are healthy because you may very little each month but have a $1700 deductible if something comes up. A lot of people complained about this, but I didn't have an issue since I was healthy. The culture is still a little old-school. Seems to take forever to implement technological enhancements, and I don't mean the kind that get rid of jobs, but the kind that get rid of wasted busy work There is still room for improvement with diversity. Everything's about getting the operating ratio lower. It's not "what have you done for me today", but what are you going to do for me tomorrow? From an operating standpoint, a lot of upper management still has the old militaristic demeanor where they try to bully you to get your numbers up. Very short-term goal focused sometimes. It's a pretty flat organization- not a lot of layers in the organization, and therefore not a lot of positions to move up to. They don't do much promoting from within. Very conservative corporate atmosphere. Lately, everyone's wondering if they will get laid of the next day.