Leaves on the Line
Leaf mulch forms a hard teflon-like coating on the tracks causing trains to slip and slide. This delays the trains and can damage both track and train.
Methods being used to tackle the ‘black ice’ of the rail industry include:
- 54 ‘leaf-busting’ trains which get rid of ‘leaf mulch’ by shooting out water at high pressure
- 82 two-men leaf-busting teams (strategically located across the country and on-call round-the-clock) who use railhead scrubbers, sand sticks and Natrusolve which softens the leaf mulch so that it can be removed
- Tthe latest satellite navigation technology which identifies hot-spots as soon as possible.
- Special leaf fall weather forecasts produced by the Met Office
- ‘Skid-pan’ training courses for train drivers which helps them to cope with the slippery autumn conditions.
Vegetation
When we manage the plants, trees and animals on our land, we do so to keep the railway safe and balance this work with our environmental obligations.
Trees and plants can cover up signals, fall on to the tracks and overhead power lines and prevent workers from getting to places of safety when trains are passing. We work all through the year, not just autumn, to manage our vegetation.
How we manage the vegetation near the tracks
A full-time Arboriculturalist (tree expert) works closely with our track maintenance teams. He advises them on which species of plants and trees pose the least risk to the railway.
We are working hard to create a structure of vegetation which will enable us to run a safe & reliable railway. The ideal structure incorporates open space, grassland, low-growing shrubs & trees. This provides a vertical structure which is so important for providing a variety of habitats.
We have to keep the track area (known as the four-foot to the cess) completely clear of vegetation so that the trains & maintenance crews can operate safely.
From the edge of the track area to the boundary, we create structured vegetation with smaller plants near the line and larger trees further away from the line. This will provide habitats for a wide variety of plants & animals.
We encourage native shrubs, including hawthorn & blackthorn, to act as a barrier to trespassers and remove sycamore, sweet chestnut, horse chestnut, poplar, lime & ash trees whose leaves cause traction problems for train wheels. We have to balance this essential work with obligations to protected species, including nesting birds that live in our shrubs & trees.
Invasive and injurious plants
Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed, common ragwort and other invasive & injurious plants cause serious problems. Some weeds can be poisonous to people & animals and others are able to damage buildings & embankments. Foreign species can out-compete our native species and do not provide habitats for native insects, birds & mammals.
Network Rail uses proper control measures for the removal of these invasive & injurious plants. We take special care to look after nesting birds & protected habitats and work with environmental agencies if we need their advice. Disposal of the waste from these plants is handled by licensed, contained landfill sites so that we do not accidentally spread the weeds to new sites.
We work within the requirements laid down in the Weeds Act 1959 and were on the steering committee which developed the new Code of Practice on how to prevent the spread of ragwort. We are also involved in a four year project to naturally control Japanese knotweed.
Herbicides
We protect habitat & water resources by restricting the areas where we use herbicide sprays. We have entered into an annual voluntary agreement with the Environment Agency and Water UK (the body that represents the UK water companies) to decide how to best use herbicides on our land.