In order to solve the problems of existing railway station section survey limited by GNSS-RTK satellite signal, low efficiency and difficult measurement conditions, this paper proposed a new technology of using knapsack mobile 3D laser scanning system to survey existing railway station section. The system could quickly and efficiently collect dense 3D point cloud data in the survey area without GNSS-RTK signal. The paper adopted the research method of combining theory with practice. First, through the research of SLAM algorithm and point cloud registration algorithm, the feasibility of the knapsack mobile 3D laser scanning system in the section survey of existing railway stations and yards was theoretically verified. Then, taking the Guangzhou East Railway Station reconstruction project as an example, a detailed survey process was developed, including route planning, control point layout and measurement, field data acquisition, office data preprocessing. Through the implementation of a series of measurement steps such as point cloud registration and splicing, multi-source data accuracy evaluation, etc., it was verified that the mean square error of the section measurement elevation of the knapsack mobile 3D laser scanning system in the existing railway station yard reached 0. 025 m, which met the measurement requirements of the existing railway station yard section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]