Program Overview

The Certificate in Transit Operations and Management is designed to provide opportunities for students to learn about potential opportunities in the transit industry and provide them with the training necessary to become leaders in the field. The program has a balanced focus on academic course work and practical experience to prepare them for jobs within the transit industry. Requirements include five courses, a workshop, and the completion of an internship with a transit property.

A. Foundation Course: CEE 510 Public Transportation Systems
This course is offered annually.

CEE 510 is one of the two core courses required for the graduate certificate in Transit Management and Operations.  The course is an introduction to public transportation systems and focuses on the relationship of public transportation to technological innovation; financing and regulation; supply, demand, and price considerations; performance evaluation; routing and scheduling; application of microcomputers; and project planning and design.

B. Foundation Course: CEE 518 Intelligent Transportation Systems
This course is offered annually.

CEE 518 is the second core course required for the graduate certificate in Transit Management and Operations. The course is a critical review and analysis of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) as it applies to the management and operation of surface transportation facilities and the technologies applied. Graduate Students will be required to critically analyze existing ITS projects as well as create a proposal to implement a technology.

C. Summer Internship
The student must complete a total of at least 200 internship hours with CTTransit and UMass Transit (or similar size transit agencies). The student is expected to spend the 200 hours between UMass Transit and CTTransit. The idea behind splitting the internship hours is for the student to gain experience in both a small and large transit operation. The internship will provide the student with valuable real life experience in the transit field where they will learn the tools and techniques of the trade through observation and participation. During the internship the student will shadow staff members from various departments and assist in projects.

D. Professional Development Workshop
This workshop will be offered each spring.

The workshop will be taught by Allan Byam, former Director of Transportation Services UMass; David Lee, General Manager CTTransit; John Collura, UMass professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. It will include a classroom workshop with distinguished presenters and several online training tools such as the Consortium on ITS Education, National Transit Institute, Institute of Transportation Engineers and other education and training groups.