Personnel training objectives and training paths are to answer the questions of what kind of person to train and how to train. As one of the first universities to set up the engineering cost major (direction), Southwest Jiaotong University, based on its own distinctive traffic characteristics, following the requirements of discipline and specialty integration construction under double first-class construction and emerging engineering education, in accordance with the development trend of engineering cost major, has established the compound talent training target of "outstanding application + scientific research innovation". Accordingly, the realization matrix is constructed, and the realization paths of whole process and whole-cycle engineering cost, such as four levels of capability, four dimensions of practice mode, compound structure of teachers, cooperative education between government-industry-university-research-application, and continuous improvement mechanism are proposed. It provides a reform direction and practical experience for the construction of characteristic engineering cost major.