We work hard throughout autumn to minimise delays and get you safely to your destination.

How leaves affect the railway

There are millions of trees on and next to the railway in Britain and, every autumn, thousands of tonnes of leaves fall onto the tracks. Windy conditions can cause heavy leaf-fall in a short space of time and rain means they are more likely to stick to the rails. When trains pass over leaves, the heat and weight of the trains bake them into a thin, slippery layer on the rail. This is equivalent to black ice on the roads.

Leaf-busting trains

We have leaf-busting trains, which move around the railway cleaning the top of the rail by spraying it with a high-pressured water jet to blast away leaf mulch.

These trains also apply a gel, containing a mix of sand and steel grains, to help the train wheels run along the tracks as they normally would.

Our routes have numerous leaf-busting teams on-hand 24/7 at key locations across Britain to scrub the top of the rails by hand with a sand-based treatment, so that trains can run safely and reliably on the tracks.

Click here for full article:https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/looking-after-the-railway/delays-explained/leaves/