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Studies & Degrees in Land Transportation

Land transportation is the movement of people and goods by road and rail: lorries, buses, coaches, trains, trams and metro systems, together with the roads, tracks, stations and traffic systems they depend on. As a field of study it has two sides. One is engineering and planning: designing infrastructure, analysing traffic and demand, and organising public transport. The other is operations and management: planning routes, running a fleet or a transport company, handling the documents of international transport, and driving professionally.

Schools teach the subject under several names, such as transport engineering, traffic and transportation engineering, transport and logistics, mobility management or railway transport. What students learn depends on the level. A vocational student learns to organise and sell a transport service. An engineering student learns to design and operate transport networks.

Qualifications and levels

  • Vocational training (FP) in Spain. The official higher-level qualification Técnico Superior en Transporte y Logística lasts 2,000 hours and belongs to the Comercio y Marketing professional family. Students learn, among other things, to plan long-distance and delivery routes by choosing the best combination of transport modes, and to handle the administrative procedures of international transport. At intermediate level, the Técnico en Conducción de Vehículos de Transporte por Carretera, also 2,000 hours, trains professional lorry and bus drivers.
  • Professional higher education. Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool (TTK University of Applied Sciences) in Estonia has an Institute of Logistics that, in its own words, prepares specialists who design and develop transport, railway, logistics and mobility solutions. Its degree programmes include Transport and Logistics, Transport and Mobility Management, and Railway Transport, which focuses on the planning, development and safe operation of railway systems.
  • Engineering degrees. The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV) in Chile offers Ingeniería Civil en Transporte, an 11-semester degree that leads to the professional title of Ingeniero Civil en Transporte. It covers air, road, maritime and rail transport networks, traffic theory, economics, demand analysis and logistics. At TU Wien in Austria, the Institute of Transportation is part of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and has research units for transport planning and traffic engineering, track-bound transportation systems and road engineering. Central South University (CSU) in Changsha, China, lists Traffic and Transportation Engineering among its schools.
  • University degrees in Spain. Official bachelor's degrees (grados) have 240 ECTS credits and official master's degrees have 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits. Students should check the study plan to see how much of a degree is devoted to transport.

In many countries transport engineering is treated as a branch of civil engineering. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), for example, describes transportation engineers as civil engineers who plan, design and maintain streets and highways, airports, mass transit systems, harbours and related systems.

Where to study it

The SpainExchange directory lists 12 schools for this subject. Two are in Spain and two in China, and there is one each in Belgium, Chile, Laos, Lebanon, Egypt, Estonia, France and Austria. The Spanish entries are Instituto Cuatrovientos, a vocational training centre in Pamplona, and Bureau Veritas Business School in Madrid, a training brand of Bureau Veritas Formación. Most of the others are universities, where transport is taught inside an engineering or management faculty.

The language of instruction follows the country. TTK states that all its curricula are taught in Estonian and that courses in English are available for Erasmus+ exchange students from its partner universities. The PUCV degree is taught in Spanish. Because course lists change, students should confirm with each school which transport programmes it runs this year, in which language, and what recognition the qualification has.

Careers

Graduates work for road and rail operators, public transport authorities, logistics companies, freight forwarders, engineering consultancies and public administrations. Spain's vocational training portal TodoFP lists jobs for the higher-level cycle such as traffic manager in a passenger road transport company, road transport manager, freight forwarder and logistics operator. The intermediate cycle leads to work as a lorry driver or as an urban, intercity or international bus driver. TodoFP notes that professional driving is regulated by the competent administration, so drivers also need the permits that each country requires.

Official projections exist for the United States. According to the BLS, overall employment in transportation and material moving occupations is projected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations from 2025 to 2035. Employment of logisticians is projected to grow 18 percent and employment of civil engineers 6 percent over the same period. These figures describe the US labour market only.

Frequently asked questions

Is land transportation the same as logistics?

No. Land transportation deals with moving people and goods by road and rail. Logistics also covers storage, purchasing and the whole supply chain. Many programmes combine the two, such as the Spanish cycle in Transporte y Logística or the Transport and Logistics programme at TTK.

How long does it take to study land transportation?

It depends on the level. The two Spanish vocational qualifications last 2,000 hours each, a Spanish bachelor's degree has 240 ECTS credits, and Ingeniería Civil en Transporte at PUCV lasts 11 semesters.

Do I need a university degree to work in transport?

Not always. Drivers and transport administrators usually train through vocational routes. According to the BLS, logisticians and civil engineers in the United States typically need a bachelor's degree.

Can I study land transportation in English?

It depends on the school. TTK teaches its curricula in Estonian and offers courses in English only to Erasmus+ exchange students from partner universities. Ask each school for its current language of instruction before applying.