The Department of Transportation Management Engineering is one of the earliest teaching and research institutions engaged in rail transit planning and management in China. In 1958, the Transportation Department was established at the Shanghai Railway Institute, offering a four-year undergraduate program in Railway Transportation; In the 1980s, on the basis of the major of railway transportation, the railway total quality management class was set up successively, and new majors of transportation management engineering, finance and accounting were added. In 1987, it was renamed Department of Transportation Management Engineering. In 2000, After the merger of Tongji University and Shanghai Railway University, it became the Department of Transportation Management Engineering of the college of Transportation Engineering, Tongji university.

The Transportation Management Engineering Department undertakes the task of cultivating talents in the "Transportation" major, which is one of the two undergraduate majors in the College of Transportation Engineering. The Transportation major has successfully passed the professional accreditation by the Ministry of Education three times and is currently recognized as a national first-class undergraduate program. The Transportation Management Engineering Department is also responsible for the training of master and doctoral students in the field of "Transportation Engineering Discipline," focusing on railway transportation operation management, multimodal transportation organization, and logistics system planning. It has trained a large number of professional and technical personnel as well as senior management personnel in the fields of railway transportation and logistics engineering in China. Many graduates have held key leadership positions in the former Ministry of Railways, China Railway Group, China National Railway Administration, and China Post. They have also served as executives and technical backbone in railway bureaus, subway companies, large-scale logistics enterprises, and major transportation planning and design firms. Moreover, the department has several outstanding teachers who are backbone professors in transportation engineering and logistics engineering at well-known universities both domestically and internationally.

The Department of Transportation Management Engineering belongs to the discipline of transportation engineering, which is a national key discipline and listed as one of the “peak and plateau disciplines” in Shanghai City. There are 21 academic members in the department, including six professors, seven associate professors, eight provincial and ministerial talents and famous lecturers. Currently, the department has formed three main research directions: Optimization and intelligentization of rail transport organization, Multimodal Transport and Multimodal Transport, and the Planning, Design and Management of the logistics system. The department has undertaken more than 50 major scientific research projects, such as the National Key R & D Program (863 Program), the National Science and Technology Support Program and projects charged by the Ministry of Transport, the National Railway Administration, the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission. Additionally, the department has provided critical technical services for operating and managing more than ten high-speed railway systems and more than 30 urban rail transit systems in the country. The department has led the establishment of the Tongji University Development Center for Computerized Timetable Compilation of Rail Transit and Maglev Trains, and independently developed a train timetable compilation system for rail transit, serving over 80% of subway lines in the country. It has actively participated in the comprehensive transportation system planning of important urban agglomerations such as the Yangtze River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The department has also been involved in the development strategies, planning, and design of 12 provincial and municipal demonstration logistics parks and logistics centers. It has received more than 40 provincial and ministerial awards, including the National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology, Shanghai Science and Technology Award, China Railway Society Science and Technology Award, and Shanghai Decision Consulting Research Results. The department has contributed to the formulation of more than 30 national, industrial, and local standards.

The Department of Transportation Management Engineering has continuously strengthened international exchanges and cooperations in recent years. It has carried out fixed mutual visits and joint research with universities and research institutes in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan and other countries, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan areas. The department has also taken the lead in international innovation and technology research programs, including the Key Special Project of "Government-to-Government International Scientific and Technological Innovation Cooperation" under the National Key R&D Program.