A coaltransporting railway tunnel in Shanxi, crosses goaf and spring protection zone and proper route should be selected for the tunnel. In the paper, a tunnel route going below the goaf, but above the stable and saturated water level of the spring zone is proposed. Comprehensive geological surveying technologies and methods needed to survey the distribution of the goaf and the saturated water level of the spring zone are summarized. 65m thickness is proposed for the safe rock overburden of the railway tunnel located below the goaf, on basis of coal mine engineering theory, railway engineering theory and underground engineering theory, as well as by means of numerical simulation. The paper can provide reference for other similar works in the future.