Briefing: Modelling drainage across London Underground: a case study

Historically, maintenance of the surface water track drainage system serving the London Underground (LU) was limited to discrete like-for-like repairs in response to deteriorating asset condition. The use of modelling software to gain an accurate understanding of the hydraulic performance of the system has been limited by incomplete and often inaccurate data, due to the fact that the railway was constructed in parts over many decades and contains numerous peculiarities. This paper uses the LU track drainage modelling project (encompassing the Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines) as a case study to demonstrate how seemingly unmanageable quantities of disparate data can be brought together to produce hydraulic models that provide significant benefit in informing maintenance activities and asset renewal programmes.