The importance of maintenance of rail surface defects is increasing more according to the KTX operation. That is because during high speed operation of rolling stock, rail surface defects may cause shortened fatigue life of rail, acceleration of track degradation and reduced ride comfort. The paper was intended to study the establishment of rail grinding criteria of high-speed railway lines considering the KTX operation circumstances. For this, the specimens of UIC 60 rail on Kyeong-Bu high-speed operation lines were collected and they were tested for metallographic structure and measured for the hardness. As the factors affecting RCF causing the defects of rail surface, passing tonnage, running speed and track condition are considered.