The development of a BIM (Building Information Model) digital model of a railway infrastructure is based on the various BIM standards. This BIM digital model can also be a part of a digital twin. BIM standardization work (pre-standardization phase) and BIM digital model work (post-standardization phase) must ensure four levels of interoperability: semantic, organizational, technical (or technological tools) and legal. The various actors in the railway sector need to have, in each phase, visibility of the operational obstacles to be dealt with and their articulation. In this context, an empirical study based on the ISO 9001 standard, makes it possible to identify the main findings. It ranges from the implementation to the operation and maintenance of the works in the two phases (pre and post-standardization), and this, on the four levels of interoperability. This empirical study allows to summarize the operational obstacles such as the maintenance of the IFC standard; its implementation by software publishers; adapting the LOIn standard to the railway sector; sharing object libraries in OpenBIM; lack of training, understanding, or application of BIM standards in BIM digital model projects, etc. Finally, this study ends with the identification of priorities in terms of actions and describes their added value, in order to improve the management of the life cycle of standards and digital BIM models.