Written question asked by Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative) on Thursday, 19 January 2023, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 24 January 2023 (named day). It was answered by Huw Merriman (Conservative) on Tuesday, 24 January 2023 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Railways: Landslips

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to introduce enhanced technology-based track inspections to detect rail embankment subsidence before landslides occur.

Answer: Network Rail, as the infrastructure manager of Britain’s railways, continue to review and update the monitoring techniques they use to detect precursors for earthwork failures on railway embankments they manage. These enhancements are informed by geotechnical experts and include increasing the use of remote sensing, photogrammetry, CCTV, distributed acoustic sensing and inclinometers. These are among other tools to enable Network Rail engineers to target measures to reinforce slopes, add protection and improve resilience in the long term.

Secondary information