Using BIM in construction projects can achieve huge benefits. In recent years, the facilitation of BIM has been widely improved in various countries. At present, BIM is mainly used in the design and construction phase of China's railway projects, and this does not reflect the true value of BIM. This paper discusses the characteristics of operation-oriented applications in BIM-based railway projects, and also studies the operation-oriented applications include an organization mode that lead by operation department and BIM consultation team; an operation-oriented hybrid system that involves multi-platform and various linked systems; and a collaborative workspace named IROOM. By comparing the conventional BIM applications, the operation-oriented application proposed in this paper considers the needs of lifecycle management on railway projects. It uses an operation-oriented method to regulate the design and construction phases, this in turns promote the use of BIM in railway projects. This paper provides a useful reference on the information integration in BIM-based railway projects.