It gets absolutely everywhere! Bridges, sidings (if not maintainted), rails, etc. Kingham station was subject to a small garden between the rails and running lines in the station (not buddleia but similar).I appreciate the risks from trees, but can someone explain what the harm done by buddliea is?
I appreciate the risks from trees, but can someone explain what the harm done by buddliea is?
The roots get into all sort of things. I once (foolishly) parked my car alongside a Viaduct which was infested with buddleia. On my return, one of the large buddleia plants had made a break for freedom and landed on the car, bringing some Viaduct with it. Fortunately the masonry missed the car by a few centimetres.
It's becoming a new religion and won't end well. Older trees and shrubs need to be pruned regularly for them to remain healthy and felled when they're diseased or out of control. New replacement trees and shrubs need to be planted in more appropriate places, not just inches from roads, railways and buildings.
It gets absolutely everywhere! Bridges, sidings (if not maintainted), rails, etc. Kingham station was subject to a small garden between the rails and running lines in the station (not buddleia but similar).
-Peter
So if a buddleia plant manages to get to a bridge, it could easily damage the bridge to the point where NR would either have to close the bridge to save it from shrubbery or run a temporary speed restriction over it.you are correct - however that doesn't explain the damage. Most of the damage comes for the root system that is extremely aggressive, fast growing and very strong. The plant also grows very quickly and spreads widely and will grow in almost anything. It gets into masonry and can force gaps apart and is generally a right pita. It also forces other plants out by using up resources quickly and over a very wide area due to the extensive root system.
So if a buddleia plant manages to get to a bridge, it could easily damage the bridge to the point where NR would either have to close the bridge to save it from shrubbery or run a temporary speed restriction over it.
-Peter
What was wrong with 245T?The problem started in BR days in the very late 80’s when we couldn’t spray with 245T anymore. 245T was a half brother of “Agent Orange” and it was a very, very effective weedkiller. Since we stopped using that, the foliage (especially buddliea) has just grown. Slowly at first (because the 245T was still in the soil or the cracks) but now it’s all too noticeable.
Without a weedkiller that really does the job (i.e one dose kills it and doesn’t let it come back again) clearing has now become a repetitive manual job that has to be fitted in around all the other work. Some of it needs valuable possession/isolation time, something we never really had to do much of when we using that severely dodgy 245T.
Small amounts of some rather nasty dioxins are also produced during the manufacturing process.What was wrong with 245T?
I wonder if trees are being used as a sound barrier in some places? In others I believe they are used to decontaminate the land. Silver birches are some of the best trees for planting on contaminated land.
The big issue I notice in the North is Himalayan Balsam. Its seeds get dragged all over the place by passing trains, and it's very invasive and grows quickly to overshadow established species.
Thank you.Small amounts of some rather nasty dioxins are also produced during the manufacturing process.
245T is the most potent active ingredient in agent orange and the agent orange issues are due to the dioxin contamination.
I did read your first post, and I still think that NR would be trying to keep these large plants down to ensure the safe running of trains. I have seen videos of trains on small branch lines when tree branches have started hitting trains as they go along. Surely that isn't good.
I said that the fact that "by the time they are big enough to cause a problem they are too big to deal with easily!" was the problem. Please read what I said properly.
-Peter
I do sincerely apologies for not listing every single possible reason for Network Rail cannot do something about trees near the line.
They seem to do a good job of telling people to keep things such as trampolines tied down (and for good reason).
These constraints do not disappear, but seen as Leeds is a larger station one would have thought that NR would want to try and do as much as possible and have people there every so often to try and get the buddleia under control!
-Peter
Because more often than not it's just causing harm or inconvenience.Unless it's causing structural issues why control a plant which provides a splash of colour and feeds butterflies* ?
* Other invertebrates are available.
No.Do we actually know on whose land these trees are growing?
Because more often than not it's just causing harm or inconvenience.
-Peter
Incidents of mature pine trees falling onto railway lines are, thankfully, extremely rare.
Unlike other species, such as old oak, which are...... common
Ha! That old chestnut.
What harm? What inconvenience?
One problem with excessive vegetation that never seems to get brought up is access and safety. It's not unheard of to have to stop work due to there being simply no way of getting down the cess thanks to thick brambles, nettles, buddleia and bushes.
It's becoming increasingly common to have to get a line blockage "for walking purposes only". That's more strain on the signallers, more time lost, and is a massive pain when you need to get back but something more urgent is demanding the signaller's attention and you're left there for an hour or so essentially trapped by the vegetation. That's when people face the temptation to take stupid risks they wouldn't otherwise dream of.