It is very important to understand the mechanism of track deterioration and predict track settlement or track irregularity growth rate for reducing track maintenance costs and designing new track structures. Track site measurements have been carrying out to investigate the tendency of track settlement and track dynamic behaviour influenced by the progress of track deterioration. The adequacy of simulation model for predicting track settlement was also investigated. The simulation model consists of a vehicle/track dynamic model and a track settlement law proposed in the draft of ballast track design standard. This paper describes an interesting tendency of track settlement and ballast dynamic behaviour including loose sleepers obtained from the track site measurements and the applicability of the simulation model to predicting those phenomena.

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