Elias Abou Mrad
Lebanon

"Make better-informed decisions in relation to railway planning, urban planning, and policy recommendations."

While working as a Senior Urban Planner and Project Manager, Elias Abou Mrad participated in the online program Railway Engineering. Read about his experience.

What was your motivation for enrolling in this course/program?
Having studied the impact of railway infrastructure on urban and territorial development for more than five years, I joined this program to get a deeper, more technical, understanding of railway infrastructure and operation. My key aim was to understand rail systems from an engineering and operations points of view.

How did/will this course impact your career or life?
I can confidently say that this program was a milestone in my career. The knowledge I acquired allowed me to make better-informed decisions in relation to railway planning, urban planning, and policy recommendations related to railway tracks and stations' interface with the city or surrounding landscape. As a manger for a large-scale (200+ km2) planning project from the initial concept and structure plan stages, I was able to lead a multi-disciplinary team for the optimization of planned roads and infrastructure that are in conflict with – or having an interface with – the planned railway corridor (bridges, underpasses, high pressure water transmission pipes, gas pipelines, overhead HV lines, channels, ponds and other flood mitigation structures... etc.).

How was your experience learning online?
It was a great challenge for me to keep up with the required pace given the COVID pandemic and some unexpected extra workload in my job. My reward came with the in-depth and high-quality content and the knowledge and skills it gave me.