Greening our corridor
The green space surrounding the railway
is often referred to as a green corridor because it is an area for
wildlife to either live in or pass through.
A sustainable lineside
The green corridor concept shapes our sustainable lineside project
which aims to reduce the impact of things like slope instability,
weather, and burrowing animals on the operational railway, whilst
providing habitat for a more diverse range of species to live in the
green corridor.
We have identified solutions to trial on 10 sites
with features that present particular challenges for running our rail
network, such as embankments in high rainfall areas that require
frequent maintenance. We have also looked at solutions that can address
wider challenges, for example, considering planting hedgerows on our
land boundaries to deter social crimes like fly-tipping and trespass.
We
will begin planting on the 10 trial sites in 2010/11 and will monitor
the sites over a five-year period. We will then update our biodiversity
action plan across the whole of our rail network to develop a more
sustainable lineside.
Our Sites of Special Scientific Interest in England
In n
England we own and manage 146 designated Sites of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSIs). These areas are protected by law, as they are
important to the nation’s natural heritage for their habitats, plants,
animals or geology.
Our aim is to improve and maintain the status of our
SSSIs to ‘favourable’ (meeting the set conservation objectives) or
‘recovering’ (meaning that the necessary management measures are in
place and that a favourable condition will be reached in time). Since
2003/04, we have increased the proportion of our SSSI land that is in
favourable or recovering status from 49.2 per cent to 79.9 per cent.
Our SSSI target for England
In 2000, Natural England agreed a Public Service Agreement target to
bring 95 per cent of SSSI land in England into a favourable or
recovering condition by December 2010. The delivery of this target is
coordinated by them, and 21 of our SSSIs are included in it.
We have
set up a £6.1m investment programme to move these 21 sites into a
favourable or recovering status. Natural England has reported that 82.1
per cent of these 21 SSSIs are now in favourable or recovering status –
a great improvement on last year (2008/09: 52.2 per cent).
SSSIs in Wales and Scotland
We also own and manage SSSIs in Wales and Scotland. We are working
with the Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage to
carry out assessments of these SSSIs and we anticipate that more
information on these sites will be available from these organisations
next year.