World: How To Get Into The Transit Industry.

From a Person with an "Irrelevant" Degree.

If you love public transportation, recognize that it makes the world better — helping reduce inequality, reduce emissions, allow for faster travel, save everyone money, and make cities better — you might enjoy working in public transportation.

One of the most common questions I’ve gotten over the years is how people can get involved, or even change careers; others have told me that my content inspired then to get a new job at a public transit authority, or change the education track they are on — it’s exciting stuff. But, that brings me back to the question — how can you get into the industry?

The way I’ve structured this post is in a series of avenues that might either get you directly into the industry, or help enable you to do so. I assume most people will do some combination of these things! I kind of assume that if you’re reading this you aren’t following a traditional path: if you have a degree in planning or civil engineering you can just apply — or you could go and get one of those degrees! You can also talk to transit agency people at job fairs, open houses, online, or at public meetings and ask then what you should study, or do to get a job — I know some persistent meeting attenders have even parlayed that into a role. I’d actually say in general you should just apply, because public transit is, for better or for worse, not necessarily an industry with a lot of people interested in it (this isn’t tech or healthcare), but it’s certainly as or more important — a lot of people without a “transit” degree have become really well-respected figures in the industry (people like Jarrett Walker come to mind).

It’s also worth noting that the transit industry generally has a pretty good reputation for letting people upskill over time, so even if you start in a role that you don’t think is for you long-term — literally even as a bus or train driver, you could absolutely move on to being a planner or something else, and the agency may well support you in that transition.

The things I have included here are influenced by things I’ve found helpful, but I also tried to include things and paths I know others have taken to get into the industry, or into a role they loved.

Observe

The most fundamental thing you can do to get into the transit industry is be interested. No number of degrees or years of experience can compete with genuine interest or passion. If you want to work in the industry — and presumably change it for the better, I would really hope you mostly use transit to get around (this is sadly more than can be said for many in the industry today in countries where transit is a marginal way of getting around), and you pay attention — where are there problems, places for improvement? What works well, and what could work well? What is changing? What projects and improvements are being completed?

Support The Good Stuff

The first thing to realize is that there are really a spectrum of options here: if you want more public transport you don’t have to work in industry. In fact, for some people the highest impact thing they could do is going and supporting the Patreons of Transit and Urbanism YouTuber creators (Oh The Urbanity, Taitset, Geoff Marshall). You could also find small local creators and send money their way, or even just blogs (Pedestrian Observations or support this blog), or some mix of all of the above.

Of course, supporting creators doesn’t need to be monetary — if someone posts a video you particularly like, you could give the video a boost by distributing and sharing it around! You could also consider donating to your local or national public transportation advocacy group. Volunteering with advocacy groups is another option, depending on whether time or money is something you have more of.

I do think it’s important to mention that even if you do want to work in the industry, following the emerging transit content creator sphere makes a lot of sense. You will get a sense for how things work, learn terminology, and if you engage in discussions in comments and the like, you can start to feel out the space. If you read Human Transit, watched every RMTransit video, and read every post Alon Levy has written, you’d know more about global transit than at least 50% of people working in transit! You could also do things like browsing Google maps, looking at videos of existing systems (POV videos of rail lines can be particularly insightful), and especially listen to local public meetings and hearings — these are where you’ll learn about what’s going on around you, the processes, and potentially shortfalls of those processes, and who’s who. That’s useful for getting a job, or becoming and advocate, and all manner of other things.

Get To Know People

Another path is trying to get your foot in the door by volunteering or doing community or political work. Some transit agencies have volunteers for things like helping people navigate the system, and this could be a good way to get to know people at the agency in a fun and casual role — I know there have been times when I’ve basically done this while waiting for people at a big transit station “Hey, you know like you know your way around!”.

You could also volunteer at a local advocacy group. Help push for better transit and learn what riders want — and again, you could get to know the key players in your city’s transit and political scene. Even better, you could start a group — for example to advocate for a particular project or policy; even if you don’t succeed, if you do a good job, you can open up doors and make a name for yourself.

If you’re ambitious, you could get elected, or try to become an advisor on transportation and infrastructure to a mayor, or city councillor, or some other politician. Getting this job without a degree might be tricky, but it could be really easy if you’re a good talker and if you know your stuff and the jurisdiction that’s relevant. Of course you could also try to get elected yourself — there are many off-ramps from elected office to public administration, and if you did a transit policy-heavy campaign and lost, you could still open up some doors.

You could also write or start a YouTube channel, if you’re somewhat new to this, and if it’s a means to get into the industry, I’d suggest doing something like this video:

Literally just going and riding transit and observing what works and what could be improved. Once you know a lot about your local system, you can start to editorialize (maybe you could even try to get into a local paper or media outlet — local media being hollowed out might be sad, but it’s also an opportunity and a gap to fill!) by suggesting service changes, infrastructure improvements, and hopefully tying that to things going on in others parts of the world (a great opportunity to expand your breadth of knowledge). Of course, I’m biased here, but I also think if you manage to amass a serious following, not only will you make connections with people in industry (the passionate types that you really want to know), but you’ll also have a great way to pitch yourself and your passion.

I think all of these options could be valuable in and of themselves, but you could also combine them with an intense transit study schedule as highlighted in the first section and use them as a stepping stone (including part time if you already have a career) to a role at a transit agency in all kinds of roles. You could also take these learnings and pivot into related industries — such as development, or public administration — where you might not be working in transit, but where you could do work that aids and relates to transit.

Others Welcome

You could also just try to get into the industry directly, as I alluded to above — especially if you have a technical degree that you could spin as having knock on elements. For example, mechanical engineers seems like they might be good at planning bus service — planning transit well requires a lot of logic and maths, but also using software! You’d be surprised (or not), but the type of people who manage public transit systems and planners are often progressive people who care about public transit. If you get across that you care too, and that you’re passionate, you’d be surprised how open people can be (and I speak from experience).

You could also work at the private sector on transit — for example ,for an engineering consultancy (I did this for a while, and continued working with the firm as a subconsultant). In some ways this might feel bad (argh… consultants), but there is also a lot of turnover between consultants and transit agencies, so if you can’t get a job at an agency, a consultancy could be a good pathway there. At the same time, consultancies offer a lot of flexibility — you could work on many transit systems, or travel a lot, and you could also do a wide range of work. You’re more likely to be working in a certain specific area at a transit agency. Another option would be working for smaller companies. A lot of people I talk to have STEM and in particular tech-related degrees, and there are a ton of companies doing things related to BIM, digital twins, digital asset management, signalling, CAD, operations and planning software, and all kinds of other stuff that do not seem to get the most amazing developers — you could be a superstar for one of these firms and learn a lot!

You could even do a mid-degree or mid-career pivot. I think a programmer has a lot of job opportunities in most industries, transit included, but you’d have no problems whatsoever getting a job, and maybe even a tech-lite job if you took a few courses in urban geography, planning, and engineering on top of what you already have. It might not be a bad idea to consider doing a certificate or program online with a respected international institution (North America is bad for transit education — especially more technical transit education) like TU Delft which has a Railway Engineering Certificate that many people I know have taken and learned a fair bit from — I’m sure there are many similar and adjacent programs from all kinds of universities and colleges the world over (but alas, not in North America). The UITP (the international organization of public transit authorities) also has tons of amazing resources. I’m emphasizing not doing North American transit training, because that might just lead to you having many of the same unhelpful beliefs and assumptions that dog our existing transit agencies and systems — and this is especially true of training for North American railways, which do not operate like railways in countries with good passenger service (or as many would argue... rationally).

Operations

I think a lot of people are bound to dismiss it, but roles in transit operations are not a bad idea. In many places these are well-paying jobs, often unionized, and working driving a bus or train is pretty damn good training on how things work.

And you don’t necessarily need to drive, you could also be a station worker, or a fare collector, or a million other things. Getting in the door can help a lot, and I think some people start driving buses, or especially trains, and end up enjoying it so much that they have little desire to do something else — after all, safely driving a vehicle with 2000 people on it is a big job! And before you worry about automated trains or AI, buses aren’t going to be automated anytime soon, and if you actually live in a place with automated trains — you can already get a very cool job (I knew a few people who did it when I was growing up in Vancouver) roving the system and being ready to step in and drive trains or direct passengers in an emergency.

An Open Mind

Now, if I may, there is something I hope you bring to a role in transit, and that is an open mind. One of the biggest problems in transit — especially in North America but really around the world — is ossification and “not invented here” syndrome. There are usually some open-minded world traveller types in every agency banging the drum on learning from other places — which of course you should do critically, guided busways are done in other places — but only two other places, and that might be for a reason; getting to know these people and work with them is a good idea.

Basically, what I’m suggesting is that you shouldn’t just get a job at a transit agency and then adopt their status quo. It’s true that most transit agencies would deliver more better transit with more funding and policy help, but it’s also true that most transit agencies get in their own way more than they should.

And so that’s it! I would love to hear people’s comments, especially if they make a go at it!