Ballasted railway track ties support the wheel forces of a train that are transferred ontothem by the rails, maintain the track gauge and provide lateral and longitudinal trackstability. Prestressed concrete ties provide the required track bearing to the appliedwheel loads and constitute a major part of the track self-weight. Design of prestressedconcrete ties involves an evaluation of their structural interaction with the ballast andan understanding of prestressed concrete design for service loads and beyond-serviceloads. This paper aims to provide an insight for the design of a prestressed concrete ballastedrailway tie under service loads and highlight the genuine qualities of tie design interms geotechnical engineering, materials engineering and structural engineering.Through the analysis of a finite element model, this paper presents estimations for bendingmoment values under service conditions for a prestressed concrete high-speed railwaytie under varying track support conditions. The paper then compares the estimatedvalues with those suggested by the relevant design guidelines for railway ties.