But equally I'm sure we can all think of sections of drainage ditches alongside trackbeds that need digging out/and or clearing of weeds, reeds, etc so that they can do the job they were provided to do when the lines were built. However, in a lot of places work like this seems to have gone out of the window, along with clearing lineside vegetation, since the early 1980s.
The washout on the Cotswold Line in 2007 shown in the main picture on this press release http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/flooding-on-the-cotswold-line-service-update was basically down to lack of maintenance on the part of the railway.
The press release claims it was unprecedented flooding. However, something similar had clearly happened at this location on a previous occasion, because a series of large-diamater pipes had been laid by BR or the GWR through the shallow embankment to prevent water building up behind it in such a situation. The River Evenlode is just behind the hedge running at an angle from left to right, before passing under a narrow bridge at the right-hand end of the washout.
Unfortunately the pipes had not been kept clear of silt and other debris, so water spilling out of the river did indeed build up in the deluge and eventually the embankment failed. So great was the force involved that a number of the sections of pipe were fired out into the field beyond. They are the large objects sitting on the washed-out ballast and in the floodwater.
I am pleased to say that since then the replacement pipes put in place when the embankment was repaired have been kept clear of blockages but if the originals have been looked after there probably wouldn't have been a washout here in the first place.
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WCML in Carlisle this morning
https://twitter.com/sped98/status/673441018986029056/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
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