If there is one predictable thing about storms in the UK, it is that they will always trigger a debate about cutting down trees close to railway lines. However, whilst on the face of it this might seem like an easy solution, there are a whole raft of issues with such a policy.
For a start, how far back do you chop trees down? Some trees in the UK can grow more than 50 metres high, meaning that you would have to create a tree-free corridor of at least 100 metres plus the width of the track bed. And what about valleys or cuttings where landslides could bring trees down from further away? Do we opt for even wider "safe" zones? Then once all the trees are down, what do we do with the now exposed soil? We have a lot more heavy rain events than wind events, so more exposed soil around the railways seems to invite much more risk of landslides / collapses than trees coming down. And of course it's not just trees that can cause issues, all manner of human made items can find themselves causing issues for the railways. Do we also clear trackside of anything not screwed down for a couple of hundred metres either side?
Also tree-lined railways also act as corridors for wildlife to move about. Are we suggesting that we stuff them too in the name of preventing what for most of the time is no more than an inconvenience. Surely a more prudent, and more cost effective method is simply to enact measures such as slower line speeds during storms, and where very high winds are being experienced line closures, as happens today. It won't stop all accidents and incidents, but it seems a far more sensible approach than just ripping huge scars in the land and probably causing more problems than they would solve.
