Damage prioritization analysis for railroad bridges – prioritization of bridge damages at Deutsche Bahn acc. to the principle of FMEA. Maintenance is essential for the reliability of bridges. An important part of this process is the structural inspection, in which the condition of the bridge under consideration is evaluated. These inspections follow currently defined deadlines. Due to the limited personnel and financial capacities for the repair of bridge damage, the question arises as to which of these damages should be treated as a priority. One approach is the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). With an adapted method, a more objective prioritization of the damages is to be carried out compared to today. The challenge is to link the FMEA to the inspection data of bridges. For this purpose, a large number of damage data from railroad bridges provided by DB Netz AG was evaluated. The new method is called damage prioritization analysis (DPA), was adapted to the damage system of DB Netz AG and finally validated on damage data of prestressed concrete and steel bridge superstructures. For the evaluation, the three parameters significance, effectiveness and cost were defined. The product of the three parameters provides information on the criticality of a bridge damage. Despite its dependence on the type of construction, the DPA enables damage to be evaluated more objectively. Thus, it can help in the well-founded repair planning of bridges and simplify the decision on the damage to be prioritized.