They Can’t Win

April 29, 2018 Longrider General News, Humour, Transport 23

For decades, leaves on the line has been the bane of the railwayman’s life. Then Network Rail started cutting down tress that were too close to the line – to sort the problem. So that’s all good then. No more moaning about leaves on the line.

Er, no, apparently not.

Millions of trees are at risk in a secretive nationwide felling operation launched by Network Rail to end the nuisance of leaves and branches falling on the line.

I wasn’t aware that it was a secret and it’s been going on for a few years now. I sometimes wonder if they are able to win. So, don’t cut down the trees and get taken to task every autumn when the leaves fall on the line causing track circuits to fail to operate or trains to pass signals at danger due to sliding on the crushed mulch. Okay, the former can be cured with axle counters, but sand has a limited effect with the sliding. Or, cut down the trees and get taken to task because of that.

Over the last fortnight, people around the country have woken to the sound of chainsaws and expressed concern at the lack of consultation and the scale of the destruction.

Make your minds up – which do you want?

That said, the point about the nesting season is one I thought odd as NWR usually avoid that.

I suppose we could go back to steam locomotion. Leaves on the line wouldn’t be a problem then as all lineside vegetation would be burned away…

23 Comments

  1. “the point about the nesting season is one I thought odd as NWR usually avoid that.”

    There is no statutory restriction on cutting trees and hedges in the nesting season. All you have to do is do a visual check before cutting anything to ensure no nesting birds are affected. Then you can cut to your hearts content. And I think there is an exemption for matters of public safety (for example roadside hedges can be flailed at any time of year if safety is an issue) so I suspect the NWR are covered by that too – leaves on the line would be a safety issue, so they could fell anything they considered necessary.

  2. OT
    Home Secretary Amber Rudd has resigned from Government

    Link: As one of the Cabinet’s leading EU loyalists, she was also under fire today after a leaked document showed she was pushing for border controls to be negotiated away during the Brexit talks, with EU migrants given preferential access to British jobs, social benefits, and publicly-funded healthcare.

    Last year a report revealed her department had lost track of at least 56,000 illegal migrants who were supposed to be scheduled for deportation, including 700 convicted criminals — although this did not cause much of a stir in the mainstream press at the time.

    Good riddance. She should now cross the floor and be in Labour where she would be more at home.

      • Sadly, I must agree. Even JRM appears to have “Champaign Socialist” tendencies.

        We need a Trump to restore democracy.

        • As I age my eyes fail. I read ‘JRM appears to have “Champaign Socialist” testicles…’

          I rather like my lying eyes better than your actual words.

    • I could be wrong but think that it was on Tony Blair’s watch that the idea of having targets for everything emerged. It proved to be a terrible idea straight out of the blocks as it instantly created perverse incentives for those who were in the unfortunate position of having to meet said targets. What is it about the way that government works that causes such bad ideas to spread long after they have been utterly discredited?

      • There could be a place for targets if they are sensible and applied honestly. But of course in politics they were neither. For instance Blair set a target of seeing a doctor within 48 hours (IIRC) so many surgeries simply refused to make appointments and you had to phone them the next day, or the day after. Mid Staffs hospital I believe met its targets even while nurses were leaving food out of reach of patients and so on. Perhaps they are unworkable in the public sector.

  3. Alternatively, Network Rail could show some common sense – rare in public sector – and plant non-deciduous shrubs & trees near rail lines.

    In the meantime, mount a scraper and vacuum-cleaner/street-cleaner in front of driver’s cab and sell the leaf mould compost.

    .
    @Jim

    Thanks for nesting info.

  4. I seem to remember seeing a device similar to a laser mounted at about rail level that could vaporise this muck and bring an end to the problem.

    I often wonder what happened to it.

    • Good grief, the challenges that face the dedicated interfering busybody. I particularly love this bit:

      “Purely educational interventions are less likely to be effective and have the potential to widen health inequalities.”

      What a wonderful window into the mind of the professional prodnose this is. We need the population to make healthier choices for their own good. but if our message only reaches the better educated and goes over the heads of the thickos, oh noes, we will be creating more inequality and that will never do. Better that the lot of them are fat and unfit rather than half of them because that would mean inequality.

  7. Presumably the detractors are unaware that thousands of acres of mature forests are being felled in the US to feed the furnaces at Drax. Maybe American trees don’t matter. The main point is that everything is a trade off. If leaves are a problem then not having trees too close to railway lines is the solution. If the destruction of the trees is a problem, then planting new ones somewhere else is the obvious solution.

  8. “Make your minds up – which do you want?”

    The householders probably want the trees not because they are pretty, but as noise insulation. From the noise of the trains.

      • I understand you can buy specially formatted fencing which reduces noise. Ideal for gardens next to a railway line. However, the householders would have to pay for that and that would never do. Or, the householders could plant trees in their garden.

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