72604 Railway traffic controllers and marine traffic regulators

What this occupation covers

Railway traffic controllers coordinate passenger and freight train traffic on railways. They are employed by rail transport companies. Marine traffic regulators monitor and regulate coastal and inland marine traffic within assigned waterways. They are employed by port, harbour, canal and lock authorities and by the Canadian Coast Guard.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 11 main duties for this code.

• Operate and monitor centralized traffic control systems to coordinate and follow railway traffic
• Chart train movements, calculate arrival and departure times and record rail traffic information
• Issue instructions to control the movement of passenger and freight train traffic and on-track mobile maintenance equipment
• Receive, record and relay train instructions to train crew by hand or radio telephone
• May supervise and train other railway traffic controllers.
• Direct and monitor vessel movements using radar or closed circuit monitors, remote radio systems and other telecommunication equipment
• Obtain position, course, speed and estimated arrival time of vessels and monitor vessel progress through traffic zone
• Issue clearance instructions to vessels, advise vessels of traffic volumes and weather conditions, and relay information to next marine traffic control sector
• Report accidents, distress signals, navigational hazards and other emergencies to authorities
• Maintain radio and telephone contact with adjacent marine control sectors and with vessels within area of jurisdiction
• Maintain log of vessel movements, size and structure.

Do not copy these lines into your reference letter. The letter has to describe what you actually did, in your employer’s words. DUTYPROOF flags wording lifted from the NOC as something to review, and an officer reading a letter that mirrors the NOC reads it the same way.

What DUTYPROOF screens for

This is DUTYPROOF’s screening threshold, not IRCC’s decision. For this NOC, screening requires at least 2 of its 11 official duties to be evidenced in your own words, plus the required letter elements. IRCC asks that you performed the actions in the occupation’s lead statement and a substantial number of its main duties — so treat the duty coverage as the number that matters, not the badge.

Codes this one is confused with

The NOC profile names these itself. Choosing the wrong code of a look-alike pair is the most common way genuine work experience fails to establish eligibility.

• 70012 Facility operation and maintenance managers
• 72024 Supervisors, motor transport and other ground transit operators
• 72023 Supervisors, railway transport operations

Excluded from this code

• Harbour master (See 70012 Facility operation and maintenance managers)
• Subway traffic controller (See 72024 Supervisors, motor transport and other ground transit operators)
• Supervisors, railway transport operations (See 72023 Supervisors, railway transport operations)

Job titles filed under this code

A title on this list does not by itself put your experience in this code — the duties in your letter decide that.

centralized traffic control (CTC) operator - railway traffic · centralized traffic controller - railway traffic · chief rail traffic controller · chief train dispatcher · head train dispatcher · locomotive dispatcher · marine traffic controller · marine traffic regulator · rail traffic controller · train dispatcher · train dispatchers supervisor · train operator · waterway traffic checker

Employment requirements

• Railway traffic controllers usually require completion of secondary school and several years of experience in the railway industry.
• Up to 35 weeks of a combination of classroom and on-the-job training is provided for railway traffic controllers.
• Railway traffic controllers require a Canadian Rail Operating Rules certificate.
• Marine traffic regulators require completion of secondary school and several months of formal traffic regulator training.