Rail
The earthworks, structures and vegetation along the corridor, surveyed between possessions and measured against the last pass rather than walked when somebody has time.
The railway is only available when the trains are not
Everything that matters on a rail corridor is beside the track rather than on it: the cutting that is creeping, the culvert that is silting, the retaining wall that is bulging, the vegetation that will be on the conductor rail after the next gale. All of it is inspected on foot, in a possession, by people who need protection arrangements to stand where they are standing. So examination happens rarely, covers what could be walked in the time available, and produces a written description rather than a measurement — which means the question "is this moving faster than it was" cannot be answered from the record at all.
Four failure modes, and what each one costs you late
None of these are on the track. All of them close the track, and all of them are currently assessed by somebody walking past with a clipboard during a possession.
Earthwork failure
- How it shows
- Slope movement, tension cracking at the crest, bulging, drainage silting at the toe
- What it costs late
- A slip closes a route for weeks and is the failure that makes the news
- What catches it
- The same slope measured pass over pass, so acceleration is visible before the slip
Structure deterioration
- How it shows
- Retaining wall bulging, bridge and culvert condition, masonry loss, scour
- What it costs late
- A speed restriction first, then a closure, on an asset with no diversion
- What catches it
- Close-range capture of structures without a possession or an access platform
Overhead line and lineside equipment
- How it shows
- Mast and registration condition, wire height and stagger drift, corrosion at the base
- What it costs late
- A dewirement takes out the route and the fleet on it simultaneously
- What catches it
- Corridor capture that records the lineside estate as it actually stands
Vegetation encroachment
- How it shows
- Growth toward the gauge and the conductor, leaning trees over the corridor
- What it costs late
- Leaf fall, wind blow-down, and the annual autumn argument about adhesion
- What catches it
- Growth measured against the previous pass so clearance work is targeted rather than blanket
Severity here is how we rank the class by default, not a judgement about your site. Every threshold is set per deployment, and a mode you consider routine can be dropped down the ranking on day one.
Six functions, on your route
Everything above is your problem. These six are ours: what the layer actually does to a corridor and the civils holding it up.
Cover the whole route, not the walkable part
The full corridor captured in a pass, rather than the sections a team could reach in the possession that happened to be available.
Measure earthworks, not describe them
Slope position compared against the previous pass with a stated accuracy, so movement is millimetres per period rather than an adjective in a report.
Reach structures without a possession
Retaining walls, bridge abutments and culvert headwalls captured close-range from the air, including the faces that need a platform to see.
Target vegetation work
Growth measured against the previous pass and against the gauge, so clearance is directed where the encroachment is rather than applied along the whole route.
Fill the possession that is already booked
Work grouped by section and access so one possession does the surveys, the clearance and the drainage rather than one job each.
Keep the record by mileage
Findings, examinations and completed work against mileage and track ID, so the next examiner starts from a measured history.
A cutting slope whose movement rate has doubled
Sixty-three millimetres is not itself alarming on an earthwork of this age. That it was eighteen and then thirty-four across the previous two passes is the reason this one gets a possession.
Slope movement accelerating in the cutting
Down main · 14m 20ch · up side
- this pass
- 63 mm
- previous
- 34 mm
- confidence
- 0.90
- drainage
- Silted at the toe
Scheduled into the next possession on this section
Inside the autonomy limit because it books survey and drainage clearance into a possession that is already booked. Anything that would change a line speed goes to the route asset engineer instead.
Identifiers and values are illustrative.
From one section to the route
It starts on a section with known problem earthworks, because that is where a movement rate can be demonstrated against something your engineers already believe.
Connect the asset register
Read-only from your asset and examination system for one section, so findings land against mileage that already exists in your record.
Fly the baseline
One full pass over the section with ground control and a stated accuracy. Every earthwork, structure and boundary becomes an asset with a measured position.
Run the cadence
Twice yearly on earthworks and corridor, annually on structures and lineside, plus after heavy rain. The rate between passes is the product.
Widen along the route
Referencing, classes and escalation rules are agreed. The next section is scheduling.
Six things that land on your side
Artefacts, not access. Everything here exists in your systems and your formats whether or not anybody opens ours.
Corridor survey
The route captured and referenced by mileage and track ID, with a stated accuracy.
LAS · GeoTIFF
Earthwork movement report
Displacement and rate per earthwork against the previous passes.
PDF · CSV
Structure condition survey
Retaining walls, bridges and culverts with condition, extent and the frame behind each finding.
PDF · CSV
Vegetation encroachment map
Growth against the gauge by section, with change since the previous pass.
GeoTIFF · shapefile
Possession scope
Work grouped by section and access, with the reason and evidence against each line.
CSV · asset system
Examination evidence pack
Passes, findings, examinations and completed work exported with provenance intact.
PDF · ZIP
Formats are the common case; the exact shape is agreed per deployment.
How often, and what for
Examination intervals are set by standards and by how much can be walked in a possession. The first of those does not change here; the second stops being the constraint.
- EarthworksTypical cadenceTwice a year, plus after heavy rainWhat the pass looks forSlope movement, crest cracking, bulging, toe drainage, animal burrowingReferenceRoute earthworks standard
- StructuresTypical cadenceAnnually, detailed on cycleWhat the pass looks forRetaining walls, bridges, culverts, masonry condition, scour at watercoursesReferenceEN 1990 · route standard
- Overhead line and linesideTypical cadenceAnnuallyWhat the pass looks forMast and registration condition, corrosion, wire geometry, signage and cablingReferenceEN 50119
- Corridor and boundaryTypical cadenceTwice a yearWhat the pass looks forVegetation encroachment, boundary condition, fly-tipping, level crossing sightlinesReferenceRoute standard
These intervals are the starting points the standards describe, not a measured result of ours. Insurers, warranty terms and your own history will move them, and the point of planning from condition is that the interval stops being the thing that decides.
Three modules, one corridor
A rail corridor is signalled and monitored, but the signalling system knows about trains rather than about the embankment they are running on. Three modules do the work here.
Detect
Flies the corridor, and measures earthworks, structures and vegetation against the previous pass rather than describing them.
Leaves behind
Movement per earthwork, classified structure condition, and vegetation growth by section
Operations
Holds the asset register by mileage, the examination history, the standards and the possession plan.
Leaves behind
The examination record, the work order and the evidence behind a possession request
Decide & act
Ranks by rate of change and by consequence to the service, and schedules into possessions that already exist.
Leaves behind
Possession scope with the reason attached, and escalations where line speed is in question
- 01O-EYEDetectInspection & digital twin
- 02O-ARCAnalyseSensors, IoT & telemetry
- 03O-OPSOperationsThe system of record
- 04actsO-AGENTDecide & actThe agentic layer
Every action writes back to the record, so the model sharpens with every job.
Questions
Can you fly over an operational railway?
It depends on the infrastructure manager and the jurisdiction, and it is a permissions conversation first. In most cases the flight is planned to stay within the boundary and off the operational line, and on electrified routes there are additional constraints. It does not require a possession, which is the entire economic argument.
Does this replace the earthworks examination?
No. A qualified examiner forms and signs a judgement, and that stays. What changes is that between examinations the slope is measured rather than unobserved, and that the examiner arrives with a movement history instead of last time’s written description.
How does it handle mileage-based referencing?
Findings are recorded against mileage and track ID in your own referencing scheme, because a finding at "14m 20ch, down main" is actionable and a latitude and longitude is not. The geospatial position travels with it for the survey team.
Can it see track geometry?
Not to the standard a track recording vehicle produces, and we will not claim otherwise. Geometry is a measuring train’s job. What this covers is everything either side of the rails, which is where the examination burden actually sits.