A rail vehicle braking device has at least one first electrodynamic brake with a drive unit that includes at least one drive motor and a power supply unit for supplying the drive motor in a traction mode of the drive unit. A brake control unit controls, in a first brake mode, the respective power supply unit for providing a braking effect. In order to optimize the system with a fall-back measure in case of a braking effect loss in respect of the cause thereof, there is provided at least one sensor unit, which detects a braking effect parameter for the first braking mode of the brake. A monitoring device is assigned to the first brake. It is independent of the brake control unit and considers, in a first monitoring mode, the braking effect parameter for the introduction of a fall-back measure concerning the brake.