After a wind and rain storm on Monday night rail service has been disrupted, yet again, on the Exeter west country main line. The ballast was washed away by river floods before Exeter in a number of places. The line is not expected to be open again before Thursday. Passengers are being carried by buses. Freight of course is disrupted. Network Rail are repairing the track, manly by restoring the ballast. Where ballast has been washed away track can be seen suspended over a void.
If storms like this are going to become commoner - as the world's climate changes - maybe rail engineering needs to adapt to combatting more frequent floods. The floods on the Exeter line are becoming more frequent, in this case the result of a rise in the nearby river. It's difficult to see what could be done without completely moving the rail lines to higher ground. Maybe the ballast could be replaced by embedding the rails in concrete slabs.
If storms like this are going to become commoner - as the world's climate changes - maybe rail engineering needs to adapt to combatting more frequent floods. The floods on the Exeter line are becoming more frequent, in this case the result of a rise in the nearby river. It's difficult to see what could be done without completely moving the rail lines to higher ground. Maybe the ballast could be replaced by embedding the rails in concrete slabs.
