After the demise of the Soviet Union and the resulting decline in railway transportation in the Post-Soviet states, most of these colleges (often renamed into universities) continued to operate with support from the government.
Railway colleges during the Soviet era prepared students for careers in various aspects of railroading, primarily as engineers.
[1] During the Soviet period they were often known as "higher educational institutes" (Russian: высшее учебное заведение (ВУЗ)), and this designation is still in use.
There were 21 different fields of study including 3 new ones: computer science, applied mathematics, and automatic control systems.
Graduates of these two types of schools were qualified to become technicians, maintaining and repairing railway equipment and track, etc.
Russians today seem to be highly motivated to obtain a college education, even if the job prospects are not very good.
[10] Examples of subjects covered are railway track, cars, locomotives, signalling and communications (including remote control and automation), transport economics, accounting, etc.
A few other American universities, notably Michigan Tech and Purdue offer railroad engineering classes.
One observer of the railroad's attitude towards education stated that railway senior officials were the result of producing "the 'practical man' who had little use for anything learned in school".
One, for example, is Johnson County Community College which offers some training in conjunction with BNSF Railway.