Abstract:In urban rail transit, balise transmission system is the key system for accurate positioning of moving trains. Train positioning is the premise to ensure the safe and efficient operation of communication based train control system (CBTC). During operation, the balise transmission system has the failure of beacon loss due to line aging, train vibration, equipment failure and other reasons, resulting in the failure to locate the train and cause train braking, which has a great impact on train operation and is a major potential safety hazard of line operation. At present, the maintenance method for the failure of on-board equipment in urban rail transit is to replace the failed equipment as a whole, which has high maintenance cost and low efficiency. In order to reduce the fault of on-board equipment, this paper studies the working state of American transponder in transponder transmission system, aims to judge the specific location of transponder fault according to its working state, and puts forward a fault detection process for transponder, which provides guidance for the fault detection of urban rail on-board equipment, It has good application value and practical significance.