Method for monitoring a railway track and monitoring unit for monitoring a railway track

A monitoring unit for monitoring a railway track, the monitoring unit comprising:

• an input that is connected to a distributed acoustic sensor being arranged along the track;
• a detection unit that is configured to receive monitoring signals that are detected by the distributed acoustic sensor;
• and
• a comparison unit that is configured to compare a first monitoring signal detected by the distributed acoustic sensor at an initial position while a rail vehicle passes the initial position and a second monitoring signal detected by the distributed acoustic sensor at least one predefined position along the track while a rail vehicle passes the predefined position with each other,
• wherein:
• the first monitoring signal comprises features that each relate to one axle of the rail vehicle passing the initial position, and the second monitoring signal comprises features that each relate to one axle of the rail vehicle passing the predefined position;
• and
• comparing the first monitoring signal and the second monitoring signal with each other comprises counting the features relating to axles of the respective passing rail vehicle for the first monitoring signal and the second monitoring signal.