The use of wood sleepers is on the decline due to their material and environmental disadvantages. Recently, the recycling of plastics and reuse as railway sleepers have become a social concern. In Europe and US, plastic sleepers have already been used, and some standards on plastic sleeper have been established. In this paper, performance requirements and test items of a plastic sleeper were described through the analysis of prEN 17318 series relevant to plastic sleeper.

For quantitative assessment of flexural strength by crack condition of PSC sleeper, which is one of the main components of the ballasted track, 9 PSC sleepers used in Gyeongbu high speed railway line were sampled and static bending strength tests were conducted by EN 13230-2. The flexural strength of PSC sleepers with some mesh or longitudinal cracks was lower than that of new sleepers. In particular, the flexural strength of PSC sleepers with mesh-type cracks was less than 40% of the new sleepers’ flexural strength. The flexural strength of uncracked sleepers was similar to that of new sleepers