Case study: subway deterioration
08 July 2025
The subway between the ticket office and platforms at Watford Junction railway station had been deteriorating.
The floor became raised outside the lifts to platforms 7 and 8. Creating a slip, trip, and fall hazard. In the same area, small cement lumps were falling from the ceiling. The subway also floods in heavy rain, and there’s been water coming in through the ceiling.
The CIRAS report to West Midlands Trains (WMT) supported the need for repairs. Before the report, two faults had been raised to Network Rail about the floor and ceiling. Network Rail planned to replace the maintenance hole cover in front of the lifts and level the floor around it. Its senior asset engineer had also arranged for a drainage survey and a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scan of the subway to provide costs for a water catchment system.
Network Rail shared these proposed works with WMT after the report. The flooring repairs have removed the trip hazard, and the scan and survey have been completed.
Network Rail’s confident there’s no issue with falling concrete or concrete integrity. Paint and parts of the defective ceiling grid were falling because of water damage.
Further reports of defects here will be reported to Network Rail via the Operational Property Helpdesk and raised within WMT and Network Rail meetings to be escalated as needed.