The Mainline between London Marylebone and Beaconsfield is set to see an increase in reliability thanks to future plans to protect and maintain lineside trees.

Lineside vegetation has become a problem in recent decades, not least with leaves that fall onto the line during autumn.

This can see trains lose adhesion, which has been known to cause serious incidents such as the Salisbury crash in October 2021.

Trees and bushes can grow to such a size that they can also encroach the railways, gauging limit and scratch and damage passing trains.

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In high winds, branches and trees themselves can fall onto the lines, delaying trains and causing temporary line closures, disrupting services to both passengers and freight.

On some lines during the spring when the vegetation is growing at its quickest they can obscure signals, camouflage line side workers in Hi-Viz jackets, which gives less warning for the drivers to sound the horns.

It can also cause public visibility problems at foot crossings as they can’t see clearly before they cross the line as the greenery is so dense.

Having said all that, lineside vegetation is now a fundamental for the wildlife that live and thrive next to the railway lines, and with the green impetus to protect such eco-systems, Network Rail arborists have been carrying out work to enable the wildlife to thrive at a safe distance while at the same time cutting back vegetation that is too close to the line.

The act of balancing nature and man is very important, and Network Rail’s biodiversity team and dedicated arboriculturist have undertaken work on the Chiltern Main Line to enable both nature and man to thrive side by side, causing minimal problems to one another.

Network Rail has, and still does, carryout many projects relating to wildlife near the railway lines across the UK with millions of pounds spent on such programmes every year.

On the Chiltern Main Line, just before spring began and birds started to nest, they cut back trees to a distance of 7 metres from the line.

Specialist arborists created dead hedges made from woven interlaced tree branches, along with log piles and the inclusion of some of the older trees.

This enables birds to nest and bats to roost in specially installed boxes, while also allowing smaller bugs to thrive, some of which are on the protected and endangered list.

“We manage our railway so it can provide the best possible home for wildlife at the same time as safe and reliable journeys for passengers and freight.

“Where we clear trees from close to the tracks we can recreate features of older trees, known as ‘veteranising’, which includes faking lightning strikes by cutting cracks with chainsaws, drilling fake woodpecker holes, and putting bird and bat boxes up. We also cut away a ring of bark low down on the tree, which keeps the trunk standing, but stops it from growing above stump level. You’ll see lots of those along the Chiltern main line this summer.”

Chris Callaghan, senior arboriculturist for Network Rail’s Central route

“Unmanaged woodland is great in some ways, but it’s just not suitable to run a railway through. So we manage our railway so it can provide the best possible home for species, and also be safe for trains. Our railway is often the perfect ‘edge’ between different habitats and we can help wildlife by using specialist techniques to ‘veteranise’ trees to make them safe and great homes for creatures.”

Neil Strong, Network Rail’s biodiversity strategy manager