In Indian railways, old tracks and bridge structures were designed on 22 T and 25 T axle load. With development locos and wagon capacity and introduction of Dedicated Freight corridor (DFC), 32.5 T axle load has been introduced. This has resulted in the need for upgrading old tracks and bridge structures for new axle capacities for existing network and feeder route for DFC. Super structure of such railway bridges can be replaced with upgraded axle load as it is made of precast PSC slab/girder, steel plate girder with deck and open web girders. However, substructure for all such existing bridges either needs to be replaced or strengthened. The substructure design for pier and foundation is governed by longitudinal forces generated through track structure interaction. The objective of this review paper is to focus on longitudinal forces actually transferred from rail to bridge substructure due to braking and traction, thermal, bending and rotation of bridge super structure through rail structure interaction analysis. This paper summarizes outcome of rail structure interaction studies performed for different bridges having continuous welded rail (CWR) along with adjacent formation effect for 100–150 m on either side. It is observed that the effects of longitudinal forces obtained through interaction study, on bridge substructure are quite lesser than the suggested codal provisions. These values of longitudinal forces transferred from rail depends on stiffness of substructure, super structure and formation, position of expansion joint for CWR, etc. The present study shows that upgradation of railway bridges in future for higher axle load is not limited to only strengthening of pier and abutment. It also requires change in rail configuration with CWR of existing track, alternative position of rail expansion joint, combine effect of substructure and formation to be considered through rail structure interaction for actual longitudinal force transfer on bridges.