Littering/ waste along our railways

Ladder23 · 1 Oct 2018

Does anybody else feel there should be more done to stop the litter amongst our railways?

I work on track and find myself when an where I can, collecting a bag or so to take away with me to dispose of back at my yard, and it doesn't really take more than a minute to do so, despite it looking like a pointless battle, I feel like I have my bit to do

Litter from other rail workers, commuters and drivers themselves I find is all too common, I cannot help feel TOC's and NR etc should be putting pressure on those to clean up after themselves.

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LowLevel · 1 Oct 2018

I remember at one point NR collecting a load of old operating notices etc from one particular TOC at a location and charging them for their removal but that's about that. Given the state some tramps occupying the driving cabs of trains think nothing of leaving them in I wouldn't expect that source of littering to change any time soon.

As for the rest it varies greatly. In rural Lincolnshire for example you won't see a single piece of rubbish for miles. The railway looks lovely.

Head to for example Stockport to Hazel Grove and it's full of crap.

Llanigraham · 1 Oct 2018

And how much of that "crap" has been tipped over the boundaries, onto railway land?
You can't just blame the railway.

And since when did the drivers have a dress code? I have never seen drivers looking like "tramps"!

goblinuser · 1 Oct 2018

On many old photographs the lineside is clear with neatly cut grass.
Controversial, but lineside mowing and litter removal could be a good job for prisoners to volunteer for.

Ash Bridge · 1 Oct 2018

LowLevel said:
I remember at one point NR collecting a load of old operating notices etc from one particular TOC at a location and charging them for their removal but that's about that. Given the state some tramps occupying the driving cabs of trains think nothing of leaving them in I wouldn't expect that source of littering to change any time soon.

As for the rest it varies greatly. In rural Lincolnshire for example you won't see a single piece of rubbish for miles. The railway looks lovely.

Head to for example Stockport to Hazel Grove and it's full of crap.

Indeed, and when you take into account the area that stretch of line passes through its hardly what one would describe as one of Stockport's deprived districts! Makes me feel ashamed of where I hail from tbh!

DarloRich · 1 Oct 2018

goblinuser said:
On many old photographs the lineside is clear with neatly cut grass.
Controversial, but lineside mowing and litter removal could be a good job for prisoners to volunteer for.

I can think of a couple of issues......

matacaster · 1 Oct 2018

Sadly, it is the stupid policies of local councils. My local council wont allow plasterboard, soil, hardcore, asbestos at its tips now (they used to). The result is dodgy traders offering to collect and dispose of said stuff (man with a van) at a cheap price using local facebook ads. Railway property is a preferred destination for such stuff. I understand there are instances of travellers also offering similar services -they are unlikely to be pursued and fines collected if caught.

rg177 · 1 Oct 2018

LowLevel said:
I remember at one point NR collecting a load of old operating notices etc from one particular TOC at a location and charging them for their removal but that's about that. Given the state some tramps occupying the driving cabs of trains think nothing of leaving them in I wouldn't expect that source of littering to change any time soon.

As for the rest it varies greatly. In rural Lincolnshire for example you won't see a single piece of rubbish for miles. The railway looks lovely.

Head to for example Stockport to Hazel Grove and it's full of crap.

Guide Bridge to Ardwick is/was horrendous for litter being dumped. I think that's one of the worst stretches I've come across over the years.

DarloRich · 2 Oct 2018

matacaster said:
Sadly, it is the stupid policies of local councils. My local council wont allow plasterboard, soil, hardcore, asbestos at its tips now (they used to). The result is dodgy traders offering to collect and dispose of said stuff (man with a van) at a cheap price using local facebook ads. Railway property is a preferred destination for such stuff. I understand there are instances of travellers also offering similar services -they are unlikely to be pursued and fines collected if caught.

Because it costs a fortune to land fill it! They should certainly not be accepting asbestos! Get a skip in and pay of proper disposal

Bromley boy · 2 Oct 2018

Ladder23 said:
Does anybody else feel there should be more done to stop the litter amongst our railways?

I work on track and find myself when an where I can, collecting a bag or so to take away with me to dispose of back at my yard, and it doesn't really take more than a minute to do so, despite it looking like a pointless battle, I feel like I have my bit to do

Litter from other rail workers, commuters and drivers themselves I find is all too common, I cannot help feel TOC's and NR etc should be putting pressure on those to clean up after themselves.

How do you know which litter comes from commuters and which comes from railstaff/drivers*

*the tea bags are probably mine.

SSp · 2 Oct 2018

How much of it is blown there by the wind...

Steptoe · 2 Oct 2018

I recall seeing a driver open his 'offside' window during a station call and throw his (empty) sandwich case out. I was annoyed enough at the time to take a photo of rubbish and cab. Unfortunately this single incident is overwhelmed by the rubbish regularly thrown over my local level crossing gate (which I clear up on the basis that waste attracts more)

Condor7 · 2 Oct 2018

Whoever is littering, particularly with the current publicity regarding the damage it is doing to our planet, it says a lot about the people that do it, and none of it is good.

Whether it’s a member of the public or railway staff, to just take an item of litter and throw it anywhere suggests there is something mentally not quite right.

LowLevel · 2 Oct 2018

Bromley boy said:
How do you know which litter comes from commuters and which comes from railstaff/drivers*

*the tea bags are probably mine.

Not many commuters carry WONs :lol:

whhistle · 2 Oct 2018

DarloRich said:
matacaster said:

Sadly, it is the stupid policies of local councils. My local council wont allow plasterboard, soil, hardcore, asbestos at its tips now (they used to).

Click to expand...

Because it costs a fortune to land fill it! They should certainly not be accepting asbestos! Get a skip in and pay of proper disposal

Ahh, the variation of services around the UK.

My local tip doesn't accept plasterboard. One in another district will take it. So much so, the small (less than half a metre square) amount I had, I told the tip guy I'd just chuck it in my bin at home then.

It's like my current council doesn't accept black plastic. A neighbouring one accepts ALL colours. I don't understand that at all.

jopsuk · 2 Oct 2018

apart from actually at stations, lineside litter is rather unlikely to be from train passengers- even with hopper windows, it's a bit of a faff to drop stuff out of them.

B&I · 2 Oct 2018

Condor7 said:
Whoever is littering, particularly with the current publicity regarding the damage it is doing to our planet, it says a lot about the people that do it, and none of it is good.

Whether it’s a member of the public or railway staff, to just take an item of litter and throw it anywhere suggests there is something mentally not quite right.

Nearly 40 years of a state-imposed ideology of selfishness probably has a lot to do with it

TheSeeker · 2 Oct 2018

Lot's of litter, old bikes, building waste thrown on the side of tracks here in Belgium. Grass clippings thrown over the back fence. A lot of people have built allotments on railway land, usually with a gate through their back fence.

Getting rid of plasterboard at the dump here is much easier if you give a "Christmas Tip" at any time of the year. This also helps if there's something interesting that you want to take away (old classic oil cans and nice persian rugs for the garage floor). Maybe that's just the Belgian way.

Still had to pay a specialist to remove asbestos though. They gave us a special meter cubed plastic bag. The lady said "Wear a mask, eye protection and disposable overalls. Keep children and pets indoors. Try to move it as gently as possible. Other than that it's perfectly safe".

chorleyjeff · 2 Oct 2018

Is the environment better looked after in communist countries ? Not referring to showpiece locations but the places where most folk live and work.
My recollection is that in the 1950s my locality was pretty grubby. But of course there was less packaging and stuff to put packaging around at that time i.e. There was less consumption and thus less waste.
Maybe there is lots of rubbish around because the country is richer.

Clip · 2 Oct 2018

chorleyjeff said:
Maybe there is lots of rubbish around because the country is richer.

No that will be because nowadays we have far too much packaging for our items and that councils still dont have a unified waste disposal system across the country with some now moving to a 4 week collection - for some people thats fine because they are keen to recycle but for others it will just increase the amount of fly tipping.

3141 · 2 Oct 2018

Clip said:
No that will be because nowadays we have far too much packaging for our items and that councils still dont have a unified waste disposal system across the country with some now moving to a 4 week collection - for some people thats fine because they are keen to recycle but for others it will just increase the amount of fly tipping.

That's just putting the blame on someone else. People who throw away the box that contained their takeaway kebab and the polystyrene cup their drink was in aren't doing it because councils have different waste collection policies. They're just being selfish and inconsiderate.

kristiang85 · 2 Oct 2018

The country in general has a litter problem - both on roads, railways and even just pavements in cities. We really need to crack down as a nation on litterers and bring back some pride into how we treat our surroundings.

chorleyjeff · 2 Oct 2018

3141 said:
That's just putting the blame on someone else. People who throw away the box that contained their takeaway kebab and the polystyrene cup their drink was in aren't doing it because councils have different waste collection policies. They're just being selfish and inconsiderate.

Indeed yes. And there was no take away food except fish and chips and that was wrapped in biodegradable newspaper or people took their own dishes. The idea of buying coffee in plastic mugs that just degrade into ever smaller fragments is, to my old fashioned post second world war real austerity sensibility, just a waste of the time and materials to make the plastic.

Clip · 2 Oct 2018

3141 said:
That's just putting the blame on someone else. People who throw away the box that contained their takeaway kebab and the polystyrene cup their drink was in aren't doing it because councils have different waste collection policies. They're just being selfish and inconsiderate.

Well you would be surprised because - thats another sign of the excess packaging i was just talking about and also yes councils do differ in where they place their public waste bins which can be quite hard to find at times - yes people chucking stuff on the floor will always be a problem but when you can see the only bins around for some distance close to where takeaways are, are all full then that would indicate that there are not enough of them - which is a council policy.

Mojo · 2 Oct 2018

I believe there's evidence however that rubbish attracts more rubbish.

Linesides managed by Network Rail are in a terrible state; have a ride out along the line from Marylebone; on the Network Rail side there is plenty of flytipping in evidence as well as graffiti on P-Way stores and bridge abutments. Look out the other side at the LU side; whilst not spotless there is almost no graffiti at locations that are easy to clean and the linesides are largely free of debris.

Robin Edwards · 2 Oct 2018

Condor7 said:
Whoever is littering, particularly with the current publicity regarding the damage it is doing to our planet, it says a lot about the people that do it, and none of it is good.

Whether it’s a member of the public or railway staff, to just take an item of litter and throw it anywhere suggests there is something mentally not quite right.

I quite agree Condor7. Littering has definitely got worse in my life-time and I put much of this down to the bad and worsening attitude of people in general, living lives where they expect someone else to clear up after them and not taking responsibility for the mess they buy/consume/leave.
It's not just railways though, any road, cycle path, tow path, bridleway, river, canal, beach will be used as a toilet by those who don't care. Then there are those that don't like the mess but moan and do little much to help clear up.
I do a regular litter-pick around my village where I walk and most weeks can fill a black sack, inclusive of the plastic bags with dog excrement that adorn the bushes and where local councils inconveniently haven't placed a bin exactly where each dog toilets.
There is no wonder that our planet is dying under a deluge of plastics and more but media seem to focus on the plastics that we buy rather than what we chose to do with the waste when we're finished with it. For me we all need to complain more and make those who choose to make mess to be made to feel that their behaviour is unacceptable. Things can change but not if we do nothing and carry on regardless.

E_Reeves · 2 Oct 2018

There's a newish bicycle dumped on my local line. Looks like someone chucked it off the bridge, extremely dangerous

atraindriver · 3 Oct 2018

underbank · 3 Oct 2018

SSp said:
How much of it is blown there by the wind...

And just how long as it been there? If it's never cleared, it's no surprise things look so bad - could be 20/30 years of accumulated dumping which makes the problem look a lot worse than it really is. I used to drive on a motorway slip road virtually every day - the litter was horrendous, but in reality it was blown from the council tip (a direct route a couple of miles away carried by the sea breezes inland). I did that journey for 10-20 years and it was never cleared. People passing would have thought it was lazy drivers/passengers from passing cars, but in reality, it was nothing to do with traffic, more to do with the council who never cleared it and who didn't have any fencing around their tip.

Same in our village where we did an organised litter pick a year or two ago. We went through the woods, hedgerows, etc where people don't usually go, and found all manner of "litter" some of which could be dated back to 30-40 years ago, i.e. crisp bags and chocolate bar wrappers from the 70's. What was a surprise was that there was very little "modern" litter, i.e. current bags/wrappers/cans/bottles, etc except around the well trodden footpaths, benches etc. So our conclusion was that the litter deep in the woods and hedgrows had been blown in and simply never cleared.

Robin Edwards · 3 Oct 2018

underbank said:
And just how long as it been there? If it's never cleared, it's no surprise things look so bad - could be 20/30 years of accumulated dumping which makes the problem look a lot worse than it really is.

I have a circuit of cycle track that I walk daily with my dogs, around a mile stretch of the ex-railway line between Bedford & Sandy in fact which is now Sustains R51 and tarmac. I can easily fill a black bag every couple of weeks and the regular replenishment of waste is discarded by fellow walkers, cyclists and most recently the joggers are discarding their foil gel packs of energy juice (and single use water bottles) that prevents them competing their run otherwise! Then there are the general suppliers of beer cans and bottles, some of which are discarded by fishermen but not in all cases. There are four red dog-poo bins on the route but the bags still arrive in the bushes.

You are correct though in that if nobody cares and wants to pick anything they don't like up, then after a few years it would look appalling. Maybe it's just me and the human race is evolving more-and-more to love living in their own ****?

Littering/ waste along our railways

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