Short bridge piers are widely used in high-speed railway. These piers have less reinforcement ratio and lower shear-span ratio than bridge piers for conventional high way. Furthermore, their section sizes in longitudinal and transverse directions are quite different. To compare the seismic performance of bridge pier between the longitudinal and transverse directions, 4 pier models were designed based on the model similarity theory. The prototypes of pier models were determined from the typical piers with ended rectangular cross-sections in high-speed railway, and the height of piers were 8 m and 16 m. After low cyclic tests were carried out in the longitudinal and transverse directions, the seismic performance of piers in these two directions, including the hysteretic curves, skeleton curves and failure modes，was obtained. The test results showed that the model with a shear span ratio of 1.35 failed due to typical shear failure, and the ductility was poor. When the shear span ratio of pier in the transverse bridge is 2.13, a few bending-shear cracks appear at the bottom of the pier, but the pier still fails in bending. The failure modes of pier in the longitudinal bridge are all bending failure, which as the same to the existing test results. When the seismic design of bridge pier with lower shear span ratio is carried, the shear capacity of the transverse pier under earthquake loading should be guaranteed to avoid the shear failure.