The Evaluation of Railway Track Drainage

The majority of the UK railway network is drained by water flowing through the railway trackbed ballast into track side drainage. Due to the degradation of the railway trackbed under the passage of trains, the drainage path often blocks with ballast particles, contamination, or vegetation or detritus which is washed or blown off the adjacent track or earthworks. Such loss of performance can have detrimental effects on the trackbed. To allow the better management of drainage, this project aims to look at tools to evaluate the condition of the trackside drainage.

The aim of this project is to develop and enhance current maintenance evaluation and monitoring systems to allow better understanding and monitoring of the condition of railway track side drainage to aid and target maintenance.