Disclosed are an activation control method and apparatus for a railway train. The method includes that: at least one activation request sent by at least one master controller of a railway train is received; a number of at least one master controller sending the at least one activation request is determined; when there are a plurality of master controllers sending the at least one activation request, the railway train is controlled to perform an emergency braking; and when there is one master controller sending the at least one activation request, it is determined that a target master controller has a permission to control the railway train, wherein the target master controller is a unique master controller sending the at least one activation request. The present invention solves the problem in the related art of potential safety hazard of a double-vehicle activation processing method.