Abstract: Intelligent railway is the system engineering with complicated structure. It is necessary to select a number of representative factors to form a set of indicators, which can comprehensively, objectively, accurately and systematically evaluate the progress and development level of intelligent railway construction. This paper combined with the actual situation of China railway, analyzed the necessity of establishing the intelligent railway evaluation index system. Based on the leading practice of railway industry and smart city evaluation, starting from the system as a whole, the paper considered the characteristics of the intelligent railway technology and the system energy efficiency characteristics, developed two sets of two-level comprehensive evaluation index system with two dimensions of technical characteristics and energy efficiency characteristics, defined the evaluation principles and construction ideas. The selected indicators reflect intelligent characteristics and meet the development needs of China's railway intelligentized development, can promote the work of intelligent railway construction in our country to be more orderly and efficient.