The Guardian: "Millions of trees at risk in secretive Network Rail felling programme"

[Andy Kirkham]

Millions of trees at risk in secretive Network Rail felling programme

Exclusive: Plan to stop leaves and branches falling on lines has already led to thousands of trees being chopped down

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/29/millions-of-trees-at-risk-in-secretive-network-rail-felling-programme

 

Unfortunately this item has not been opened for readers' comments, so I'm unable to express my acclaim for this admirable programme (although admittedly it might have been better to leave it until the nesting season is over)

 

 

[009 micro modeller]

There was a lot about this in the local papers when the trees on the St Albans Abbey branch were trimmed, with people moaning that their property was no longer screened from the railway etc etc. You could just tell that they were exactly the same people who complain when the service is suspended due to fallen trees.

[PaulRhB]

It's been going on for years already so hardly secret!! and just post pics of railway embankments in steam days in response

[009 micro modeller]

Network Rail could make some more money by selling charcoal made from the trees.

[Mike Storey]

Traditional, seasonal hype over a programme that has been extant since the 1970's. The only difference is the budget that is allocated each year, and that has been lacking since Railtrack days. When I was a Project Manager, then Director in BR, RT and then Network Rail, we had clear guidelines on tree and bush felling. We were ordered to ensure non-deciduous planting when renewing or creating embankments, and to eradicate deciduous specimens within our purview, if the season was appropriate. That often meant raiding maintenance budgets, but these were sparse after 1996, until perhaps 2008.

 

No maintenance or project manager would dare risk felling in nesting season, unless they could prove clear safety reasons, or the evidence from an accredited environmental third party of the absence of same. The hassle with council environmental officers, let alone the many other organisations out for blood, was not worth the crime. On top of which, many of us were just as concerned environmentally as they were.

 

It sounds like the budget for such work has been increased, hence the media attention.

[Robin2]

If there had been proper management of the permanent way the trees would have been removed years ago when they were only saplings.

 

...R

[woodenhead]

People want to use trains, they just don't want to see them.

 

On the other side, there aren't enough trees in the world

[brack]

Is it really that secretive if done in broad daylight, using chainsaws by blokes in high vis vests?

 

Perhaps NR should hire steam locos to run up and down on dry days to remove woody growth on the lineside?

[pete_mcfarlane]

Is it really that secretive if done in broad daylight, using chainsaws by blokes in high vis vests?

I suspect it's the media definition of 'secretive' which basically means that NR didn't email out a press release saying they were doing it. 

[E3109]

In the meantime they poison the foodstuffs (specifically soft drinks) with Aspartame, and nobody bats an eyelid.

 

Aspartame is, in essence, excrement from the e-coli bug which in itself is basically excrement.

And the FSA approve this stuff.

[jjb1970]

I suspect it's the media definition of 'secretive' which basically means that NR didn't email out a press release saying they were doing it.

Ah yes, that one....I thought it was only in my industry where stuff which has been happening for decades (going back to the 19th century in some places) in full view of anybody that cares to notice, all the requisite government approvals, often with libraries of technical papers and articles in industry magazines, regular conferences etc etc is one day noticed by the general media and presented as a "dark secret".

[Nearholmer]

Of course, the biggest tree-killers are lawn mowers, who slice them down before they’ve even grown 2” tall.

[jamesg]

There has been a lot of tree felling on the lines that run past me.  I've seen workers on behalf of Network Rail clearing trees on a few occasions in January and February, all work had stopped by the middle of March (one worker mentioned to me that this was to protect nesting birds).

 

Some work had to be done at night, unfortunately some was in the middle of villages.  I can understand people being annoyed at being kept awake, especially when the railway stations in these villages closed in the 1960s.

 

The last tree to fall on the line, cancelling all trains, was in December.  Hopefully there will be no such incidents next winter and the press will be reporting on there being no trains cancelled.

[Zomboid]

I cut down and removed a huge bush in my garden a couple of weeks back, without telling my neighbours that I was planning to. It's a secretive vegetation destruction process to make my garden more fit for the way I want to use it.

[jjb1970]

How many news stories do we get telling us things are going well? The rather dull but accurate story that the railway works pretty well and gets us from A to B safely and reasonably punctually doesn't sell papers. Far better to focus on juicy opportunities to get people worked up about some non-story.

[Oakydoke]

Someone should tell them that HS2 plan to plant a million, billion, trillion, gazillion trees or whatever, to hide their new railway from public view - where it isn't buried in tunnels, cut and cover, or hidden in cuttings or behind noise reducing earth mounds and screening.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Oakydoke

[Robin2]

Someone should tell them that HS2 plan to plant a million, billion, trillion, gazillion trees or whatever, to hide there new railway from public view - where it isn't buried in tunnels, cut and cover, or hidden in cuttings or behind noise reducing earth mounds and screening.

Is that how they plan to make it carbon-neutral?

 

...R

[Joseph_Pestell]

In the meantime they poison the foodstuffs (specifically soft drinks) with Aspartame, and nobody bats an eyelid.

 

Aspartame is, in essence, excrement from the e-coli bug which in itself is basically excrement.

And the FSA approve this stuff.

I wondered why I disliked it so much.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Grauniad must have been very short of news to publish this nonsense.

 

Trees can not just be allowed to grow randomly anywhere, unmanaged - let alone alongside roads and railways.

 

And the numbers of trees involved is minimal by comparison with that is being destroyed for other reasons.

[Ron Ron Ron]

In the meantime they poison the foodstuffs (specifically soft drinks) with Aspartame, and nobody bats an eyelid.

 

Aspartame is, in essence, excrement from the e-coli bug which in itself is basically excrement.

And the FSA approve this stuff.

 

 

Careful.

You might be accused of talking cr@p.

 

   

[whart57]

The pic the Guardian used showed a train with Mk1 slam door stock. Not on Network Rail then

[Ron Ron Ron]

Are there "targets" for the felling of these trees?

 

Some government minister must be held to account and hounded out of office for this abomination.

 

 

.

[hayfield]

It's been going on for years already so hardly secret!! and just post pics of railway embankments in steam days in response

 

You are very correct, back in steam days the embankments were kept in check by fires started by passing locomotives, living close to the west coast main line was a regular occurrence and the highlight of the day especially when the fire brigade arrived.

 

Lets face it when the railways were built the trees were felled, both trees and shrubs on embankments are self sown and therefore weeds, albeit nice looking ones. But the embankments were never designed for trees and bushes

 

Its not only the Railways doing it but also the National Grid, they regulary prune large shrubs and trees under the power lines, and at my golf club paid it so they could clear (not prune) all trees and shrubs under the wire

[hayfield]

Someone should tell them that HS2 plan to plant a million, billion, trillion, gazillion trees or whatever, to hide their new railway from public view - where it isn't buried in tunnels, cut and cover, or hidden in cuttings or behind noise reducing earth mounds and screening.

 

 

And deprive the train spotters of their pastime ?

[Ron Ron Ron]

And deprive the train spotters of their pastime ?

 

 

There will be nothing to look out at from the HS trains and nothing to see when attempting to look at the trains from the line side.

 

Just as well really, because it would be extremely dangerous for anyone to witness one of these trains passing by at such high speeds.

They are likely to die from convulsions on witnessing such a horrific unnatural act.

The trees are a Health and Safety measure.

 

 

 

.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Ron Ron Ron