国家铁路¹的债务问题已经成为其市场化改革、高质量发展的重要风险点。基于对国家铁路近17年来债务形成过程的分析，发现其债务形成具有明显的阶段性特征，尚未解决的历史债务总量高企、资本金不足下的高位投资、铁路建设投资的特殊性以及不完善的委托运输管理模式等是导致债务负担不断增大的主要原因。基于债务的形成原因并借鉴国内外相关债务风险化解经验，本文认为国家铁路债务风险的化解需遵循分阶段、分类别、多主体共同解决的原则，即历史债务需由中央财政、地方财政和国铁集团通过如政策性债转股、铁路专项资金、市场化定价等方式合力共担，相关各方需给予必要的保障支持。

China’s National Railway debt is becoming a significant threat to its market-oriented reform and high-quality development. Through an analysis of the debt formation process over the past 17 years， the study reveals the following findings： The accumulation of debt shows the distinct stages. The principal causes of the mounting debt burden include the unresolved substantial historical debt， heavy investment without adequate capital to support， the idiosyncrasies of railway construction investment， and the inadequate management model for the entrusted transportation. Drawing upon the causes of debt formation and the debt risk resolution experiences both domestically and abroad， this paper proposes a phased， categorized， and multi-agent approach to resolving the debt risk in China’s National Railway. To be specific， the allocation of the historical debt should be distributed among the central finance， local finance， and China’s State Railway through the implementation of measures such as policy-driven debt-to-equity swaps， the establishment of special railway funds， and market-oriented pricing. Moreover， all relevant parties should provide the necessary support for effective resolution.