Abstract：Research purposes： The paper mainly aims to develop rational operation management modes for extending its urban transportation functions of the conventional railways to provide urban rail transit service in railway terminal cities. Taking into account the special features of urban rail transit and conventional railways, it analyzes the critical influencing factors and challenges and presents several different types of operation management modes. A comparison of two typical operation management modes is implemented to conduct the practical demonstration on Chengdu terminal case. The new 〖JP2〗operation management modes are expected to solve the potential challenges in pratical applications and make conventional railways applicable to serve urban public transportation activities.  Research conclusions： （1）In order to facilitate sustainable development of providing urban rail transit service on conventional railways, it should clarify the rights and responsibilities of conventional railway owners during the project feasibility stage and develop customized applicable operation management mode satisfying the requirements of modern enterprise system. （2）On the railway lines where conventional long-distance transportation service takes a small share, it is conducive to apply the mode of separation of railway infrastructure and operation from the point of view of railway network capacity, efficiency and benefits maximization. (3) On the railway lines that provide large conventional transportation service, the operation management modes could be more flexible to make decisions and requires to consider more practical constraints.（4）The research results can provide the reference for selection of operation management modes for providing urban rail trainsit service on conventional railways. 