No one can just walk off the street to train as a Metra engineer. Internal Metra applicants need to have been in a train-service job, typically a conductor, and must go through 40 weeks of training to be an engineer. External applicants need at least four years of experience as an engineer and go through 20 weeks of training. Like Davis and Cook, the other ten people currently in training at Metra are external applicants from other railroads.