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The state of our railway embankments

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anti-pacer

anti-pacer

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Take a trip through many urban areas on a train and more than likely you'll see embankments strewn with rubbish and fly tipping from the lazy residents who live just behind the fence/wall. The sides of bridges tend to be bad too from what I've seen.

Most of my urban journeys are in the North of England, but I've also seen this a lot in the West Midlands. Is this a nationwide problem, and what can be done about it?
 
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pendolino

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anti-pacer said:
Are the embankments of London subject to this kind of blight?
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Yes, very much so unfortunately. NR's contractors did a whole load of tree clearance work recently around Bromley Jct and up through Crystal Palace to West Norwood and it uncovered all sorts of rubbish. Efforts were made though to clear some of it around Gipsy Hill/West Norwood, but there are still piles of fly tipping everywhere, most of it dumped over the boundary fence by neighbours.
 
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Chrisgr31

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Yes you do see it on trains heading in to London. Surely the simple solution is to tip it back over the fence?
 
anti-pacer

anti-pacer

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Chrisgr31 said:
Yes you do see it on trains heading in to London. Surely the simple solution is to tip it back over the fence?
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As it's obvious where it's come from, can't Network Rail prosecute the offenders?

It wouldn't take much hard work would it? Half the time these muppets leave things with their addresses on. Councils prosecute against it.

Not only does it look unsightly on our railways, but it's also dangerous.
 
Xenophon PCDGS

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Fly tipping is not something confined to the British railway system, as many farmers can so attest to what is discarded in their fields and so can Local Authorities in areas of town and cities in the built-up parts of Britain. Nor is it something of recent occurrences in time. Building rubble is a notable example of what is fly tipped of this sad reflection upon certain elements of humanity and their deplorable lack of respect for the land in which we live.
 
anti-pacer

anti-pacer

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Paul Sidorczuk said:
Fly tipping is not something confined to the British railway system, as many farmers can so attest to what is discarded in their fields and so can Local Authorities in areas of town and cities in the built-up parts of Britain. Nor is it something of recent occurrences in time. Building rubble is a notable example of what is fly tipped of this sad reflection upon certain elements of humanity and their deplorable lack of respect for the land in which we live.
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Exactly! We live in a beautiful country, but so much of it spoilt by lazy, selfish people.
 
61653 HTAFC

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The embankments on the approach to Dewsbury (from the Huddersfield direction) always used to be strewn with detritus. I think this was mostly from the Blackburn's Waste yard below the embankment, as the aforementioned company seemed unwilling to invest in/use tarpaulins to keep the contents of their skips in place <(
 
anti-pacer

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61653 HTAFC said:
The embankments on the approach to Dewsbury (from the Huddersfield direction) always used to be strewn with detritus. I think this was mostly from the Blackburn's Waste yard below the embankment, as the aforementioned company seemed unwilling to invest in/use tarpaulins to keep the contents of their skips in place <(
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I think that may still be the case. :(
 
Silv1983

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I find it amusing when travellers occupy the wasteland near to Wigan Wallgate Junction, and without fail the day after they're gone the land both sides of the fence is strewn with rubbish, faeces, building waste - the lot!
There's also a near-permanent travellers "site" beside the Audi garage in Bolton - where there is so much junk thrown over the fence it's like a piece of modern art.
Then there's the council flats near Swinton where the rubbish (usually discarded buggies, prams and toys etc) start and stop in line with each end of the building.

It's cheapest and easiest for network rail just to let it build up and clean en mass once every decade or so.
 
anti-pacer

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Silv1983 said:
I find it amusing when travellers occupy the wasteland near to Wigan Wallgate Junction, and without fail the day after they're gone the land both sides of the fence is strewn with rubbish, faeces, building waste - the lot!
There's also a near-permanent travellers "site" beside the Audi garage in Bolton - where there is so much junk thrown over the fence it's like a piece of modern art.
Then there's the council flats near Swinton where the rubbish (usually discarded buggies, prams and toys etc) start and stop in line with each end of the building.

It's cheapest and easiest for network rail just to let it build up and clean en mass once every decade or so.
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Or get people on Community Payback to do it.
 
Gathursty

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When I was at Uni in Lancaster*memories... sniff*, I recollect the footpath on the western side of the WCML to the north of the bridge over the River Lune. The metal fence defending the railway embankment from the public was used as a landfill by unscrupulous local residents and even the footpath had detritus strewn across it. A shame as a useful footpath beside Ryelands Park becomes a place to avoid.
 
anti-pacer

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Gathursty said:
When I was at Uni in Lancaster*memories... sniff*, I recollect the footpath on the western side of the WCML to the north of the bridge over the River Lune. The metal fence defending the railway embankment from the public was used as a landfill by unscrupulous local residents and even the footpath had detritus strewn across it. A shame as a useful footpath beside Ryelands Park becomes a place to avoid.
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There you go, the magic word... Ryelands!

I know exactly where you mean and it's still the same!

Apologies to anyone who lives there.
 
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Knowhere near as bad as the 1970's - on an ex Halifax to Leeds DMU circa 1979 I was appalled at the blatant refuse - and even more so when there was a fridge on the line ahead of us (you could see ahead in those days) - expecting a full emergency application of the vacuum brakes but the old boy driving just carried on , and we scrunched over it with the 108 (?) none the worse for it.
 
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dysonsphere

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There is the point that the government has made it so expensive to dispose of waste legally that the small punter/ diy person feels they have no choice but to dump it. Remember the fridge mountains caused by a change of law.
 
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dysonsphere said:
There is the point that the government has made it so expensive to dispose of waste legally that the small punter/ diy person feels they have no choice but to dump it. Remember the fridge mountains caused by a change of law.
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I can only speak for South London, but private householders can dispose of waste free of charge in our council area and I doubt that it's much different in other parts of the country. There is a problem in that tradespeople like builders don't enjoy the same privilege and some of the less scrupulous ones dump stuff wherever it suits them for free - like the end of my road.

It's a problem that's existed on the railway ever since I can remember. Every piece of railway cutting between North Wales and Liverpool seemed to be a midden in the 1970s.

Of course, Network Rail could set a better example by clearing up their own junk from time to time...
 
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Chrisgr31 said:
Surely the simple solution is to tip it back over the fence?
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May I - as someone who lives just "over the fence" - protest most strenuously against that! I have never even thrown so much as a snowball onto the railway, and yet every time I go past on a train I am shocked at how much debris there is immediately alongside the house - and none of it is ours! (Not even stuff that has got there by accident or windblown.) I always wonder where it comes from and how it gets there.

Two years ago NetworkRail took the opportunity of a series of overnight possessions to also clear up all the vegetation and rubbish along the line. Within a week of them finishing I was amazed to see that a (presumably empty) gas cylinder had appeared alongside the track next to our garden. It was the sort of cylinder used by households for patio heaters and barbeques, not something left by the track workers. God only knows how it got there or where it had been thrown from! But if I had awoken one morning to discover it had been thrown into our garden by NetworkRail applying your theory - I would NOT have been happy!
 
Hellfire

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Darren R said:
Two years ago NetworkRail took the opportunity of a series of overnight possessions to also clear up all the vegetation and rubbish along the line. Within a week of them finishing I was amazed to see that a (presumably empty) gas cylinder had appeared alongside the track next to our garden. It was the sort of cylinder used by households for patio heaters and barbeques, not something left by the track workers. God only knows how it got there or where it had been thrown from! But if I had awoken one morning to discover it had been thrown into our garden by NetworkRail applying your theory - I would NOT have been happy!
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You should have been happy. There is a hefty deposit on gas cylinders which can be reclaimed when you take one to a dealer :D
 
Xenophon PCDGS

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anti-pacer said:
There you go, the magic word... Ryelands!

I know exactly where you mean and it's still the same!

Apologies to anyone who lives there.
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Was it Ryelands where a television documentary was made some years ago, where a local Asian convenience shopkeeper was shown to have been trading virtually in a state of siege from certain mindless elements resident on the local estate, but decided to keep on trading with the help of a local elderly female resident who had worked for him for years ?
 
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anti-pacer said:
Are the embankments of London subject to this kind of blight?
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Not just the embankements. As you go round the Sutton loop there's a short section with a mass of used nappies in the 4 foot as well as the embankment. It seems that whoever lives in a particular flat that backs on to the track just throws the used nappies out of the window. Well, it is easier/less messy than taking them out to the bin... :roll:

I would dearly love to lob them all back in through their window. <D
 
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