How do I change track direction?

I want to make an automatic railroad. When I stand on a pressure plate I want a cart to arrive within a few seconds. To do this I have setup a self resetting booster. At the end of the booster I have a pressure plate with redstone wire to change the track direction. However once the redstone changes the initial track direction it never goes back once I step off the pressure plate. (See below)

Am I doing something wrong? Is this happening because of the South-West rule?

Solution 1:

This is happening because you need at least one block of redstone to point "towards" the track, you can't just run parallel to it. Hopefully this awesome paint diagram will explain what I mean:

Solution 2:

Another caveat: If you place multiple tracks next to each other (minecart stations are a good example), track switching might not work at all anymore, because the game seems to be unable to determine which track is powered, or something.

When building my station, I found that redstone torches directly below the switching track block work best. Do not place any other tracks other than the two directions needed directly adjacent to your switching block.