The invention relates to a GPS-based anti-collision early warning system for switching operation, which comprises a plurality of locomotive terminals, a plurality of station terminals and at least one monitoring management center, wherein the at least one monitoring management center comprises a locomotive real-time dynamic database, a vehicle real-time dynamic database, a track database, a database maintenance unit, a data transmitting unit and a data receiving unit; each locomotive terminal comprises a GPS positioning unit, a locomotive position reporting unit, an analytical unit and a warning unit; and each station terminal comprises a plan execution reporting unit. The invention also provides a corresponding anti-collision early warning method. By the real-time positioning data of theGPS positioning unit on each locomotive terminal and the real-time data of execution conditions of a switching operation plan and a loading and unloading operation plan, which are reported by each station terminal, the invention dynamically updates a plurality of databases, thereby realizing anti-collision early warning for the switching operation.