Has this ballast at Moulsecoomb had it?

[1Q18]

Some photos from twitter of the flooding at Moulscoome today, although probably not as big as some other parts of the network

https://twitter.com/SouthernRailUK/status/1742956370775646413

I post this though because the condition of the ballast is crap. I've reported this to NR in the last and possibly posted pictures on here before, - ah yes I have - 2 years ago, weedy compacted, and likely poor draining ballast :

Has this ballast at Moulsecoomb had it?

Was out earlier at Moulsecoomb, and saw this compacted, mossy ballast. It's not just here, though, it's filthy at London Road (Brighton) as well. At what point would ballast be considered life expired and need replacing? It's been like this for months, if not several years now.

www.railforums.co.uk

So it's hardly surprising the track has flooded.


Relieving to know that fares will be increasing soon, we can all look forward to these increases going into helping prevent these sorts of things.....

Network Rail will be well aware of the ballast condition. Basic visual inspection of the line is carried out four-weekly by Plain Line Pattern Recognition trains (which will also flag up any track geometry faults arising from the compacted ballast), with boots-on-the-ground supervisor track inspections taking place at less frequent intervals. Having the maintenance resources to deal with all of these jobs is the issue.