This research aims to monitor seismic intensity along railway lines, study methods for calculating the extent of earthquake impact on railways and address practical challenges in estimating intensity distribution along railway routes, thereby achieving graded post-earthquake response measures.

The seismic intensity monitoring system for railways adopts a two-level architecture, namely the seismic intensity monitoring equipment and the seismic intensity rapid reporting information center processing platform. The platform obtains measured instrumental intensity through the seismic intensity monitoring equipment deployed along railways and combines it with the National Seismic Network Earthquake Catalog to generate real-time railway seismic intensity distribution maps using the Kriging interpolation algorithm. A calculation method for railway seismic impact intervals is designed to calculate the mileage intervals where the intensity area corresponding to each contour line in the seismic intensity distribution map intersects with the railway line.

The system was deployed for practical earthquake monitoring demonstration applications on the Nanjiang Railway Line in Xinjiang. During the operational period, the seismic intensity monitoring equipment calculated and uploaded instrumental intensity values to the seismic intensity rapid reporting information center processing platform a total of nine times. Among these, earthquakes triggering the Kriging interpolation algorithm occurred twice. The system operated stably throughout the application period and successfully visualized relevant seismic impact data, such as earthquake intensity distribution maps and affected railway mileage sections. These results validate the system’s practicality and effectiveness.

The seismic intensity monitoring for the railway system designed in this study can integrate the measured instrumental intensity data along railways and the earthquake catalog of the National Seismic Network. It uses the Kriging interpolation method to calculate the intensity distribution and determine the seismic impact scope, thereby addressing the issue that the seismic intensity distribution calculated by traditional attenuation formulas deviates from reality. The system can provide clear graded interval recommendations for post-earthquake disposal, effectively improve the efficiency of post-earthquake recovery and inspection and offer a decision-making basis for restoring railway operations quickly.