Caledonian Rail Infrastructure · Rail & transport
Cess vegetation survey across 1,240 route km without possession
Vegetation management on the network was reactive, expensive and required track access that competed with renewals.
The challenge
Caledonian manages 1,240 route km. Lineside vegetation had been surveyed on foot, which required possessions, exposed staff to the operational railway, and produced a picture that was out of date before it was collated.
What we did
GRIDSCAN Rail processes helicopter and satellite acquisitions into cess vegetation, structure gauge intrusion and earthworks movement layers, with a CSM-RA assurance package. Defects export directly into Caledonian's asset management system.
Results
- Whole-network vegetation picture refreshed twice yearly without possession
- Staff hours on the operational railway for survey reduced by an estimated 71%
- Earthworks movement monitoring added at no additional acquisition cost
- Highly Commended, UK Rail Technology Association Rail Innovation Award 2023
The safety case wrote itself. We removed people from the track to get better data.
Head of Asset Management, Caledonian Rail Infrastructure