Buddleia roots and the damage they cause.

Envoy · 1 Jul 2025

If Network Rail were to act now by hacking down the Buddleia bushes before they set seed, they would help prevent the seeds blowing to create new plants. When the cut down Buddleia’s start to regrow, then they should spray them to knock them out.

Photo below shows the situation yesterday by the Canton depot in Cardiff. Clearly no effort is bing made to control these invasive shrubs which wreck masonry.

RailUK Forums

alxndr · 1 Jul 2025

The problem is the off-track department are snowed under this time of year with reports of obscured signals, spraying giant hogweed, treating Japanese knotweed, and all their usual fencing and access point tasks. There’s lots of stuff I’m sure they’d like to do as much as we’d like them to do, but they can only do what they can with the staff they’ve got.

The exile · Wednesday at 07:16

alxndr said:
The problem is the off-track department are snowed under this time of year with reports of obscured signals, spraying giant hogweed, treating Japanese knotweed, and all their usual fencing and access point tasks. There’s lots of stuff I’m sure they’d like to do as much as we’d like them to do, but they can only do what they can with the staff they’ve got.

Fair enough, but the buddleia’s also there for the taking in the winter.

silexa · Wednesday at 08:37

chris_in_salop said:
The Flora of Birmingham and the Black Country (2013) lists the following plants as being particularly associated with railways in the West Midlands.

Buddleia (Buddleia davidii)
Danish scurvy-grass
Common stork's-bill
Common fumitory
Common toadflax
Common mallow
Long-headed poppy
London plane
Yellow mignonette
Oxford ragwort
Hedge mustard
Rat's-tail fescue
Japanese knotweed

Many (but not all) are drought-tolerant weeds with abundant seed production.

I've also noticed quite a large amount of Lupins on the XCity line (specifically purple ones, which look wonderful around Bourneville station). Lovely to see, but do spread well...

The exile · Wednesday at 09:03

chris_in_salop said:
The Flora of Birmingham and the Black Country (2013) lists the following plants as being particularly associated with railways…
Oxford ragwort

I’m sure I remember reading that there was a direct correlation to be seen between the spread of Oxford ragwort in the 19th century and the density of goods traffic from goods yards in Oxford.

fandroid · Wednesday at 09:21

chris_in_salop said:
The Flora of Birmingham and the Black Country (2013) lists the following plants as being particularly associated with railways in the West Midlands.

Buddleia (Buddleia davidii)
Danish scurvy-grass
Common stork's-bill
Common fumitory
Common toadflax
Common mallow
Long-headed poppy
London plane
Yellow mignonette
Oxford ragwort
Hedge mustard
Rat's-tail fescue
Japanese knotweed

Many (but not all) are drought-tolerant weeds with abundant seed production.

I see that London Plane is in that list. It's a hybrid and I imagine that most of those were planted. I don't think it naturalises very readily. I remember reading in a tree guide (published around 1970) that the oldest known ones are still growing, and the earliest ones date from the 17th century! Those in London, that haven't been pollarded to within an inch of their lives, are huge. Southwark Park has a fair number of big ones, I think

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Wednesday at 09:27 ==

Different countries have different railway weeds. In western Germany the trackside in places is a jungle of what looks like False Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia). If that's what they are then they'll need clearing as it grows to around 30m high!

The exile · Wednesday at 09:44

fandroid said:
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Wednesday at 09:27 ==

Different countries have different railway weeds. In western Germany the trackside in places is a jungle of what looks like False Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia). If that's what they are then they'll need clearing as it grows to around 30m high!

Memories of various trips at this time of year (Slovakia in particular) with the train ploughing through a sea of poppies.

XCTurbostar · Wednesday at 11:12

Problem is, after it has got to such a size, you could argue that without it, the surrounding structure would not be stable.
The way I see it, if this continues, we aren't far away from a serious incident where it has some involvement of weakening the structure. Visually, structures with it look un-maintained which is a bad look for a modern railway trying to extract every last inch of efficiency and paths from a legacy system.

Welly · Wednesday at 13:50

Peter Mugridge said:
Indeed.

The one I've just had removed had self seeded.

I can't even work out where from!!!

Ahem... I recall you have a railway line behind your house!

Peter Mugridge · Wednesday at 15:49

Welly said:
Ahem... I recall you have a railway line behind your house!

Yes, but there's no buddleia growing on the embankment!!

Probably a bird plop seeded it.

XCTurbostar said:
Problem is, after it has got to such a size, you could argue that without it, the surrounding structure would not be stable.
The way I see it, if this continues, we aren't far away from a serious incident where it has some involvement of weakening the structure. Visually, structures with it look un-maintained which is a bad look for a modern railway trying to extract every last inch of efficiency and paths from a legacy system.

We already have haven't we? The viaduct partial collapse near Vauxhall a couple of years ago was down to buddleia roots wasn't it?

Elecman · Wednesday at 21:45

Northwich station

adc82140 · Thursday at 11:55

Most rose bushes: "get my soil pH just right or I will die"

Buddleia: "yeah, concrete & masonry!"

Russel · Thursday at 14:51

silexa said:
I've also noticed quite a large amount of Lupins on the XCity line (specifically purple ones, which look wonderful around Bourneville station). Lovely to see, but do spread well...

Can't remember with, either Erdington or Chester Road on the X-City has ivy (I think) growing from under the platforms almost up to the railhead on the Lichfield bound platform side!

Belperpete · Sunday at 00:13

Mcr Warrior said:
Rosebay Willowherb (a.k.a. "Fireweed") and Himalayan Balsam also tend to grow unchecked on railway verges, but not sure though what damage they might cause, if any, to masonry.

Himalayan Balsam likes damp conditions. It will rapidly choke up streams and other watercourses, with potential flood risk.

godfreycomplex · Sunday at 01:08

Tetragon213 said:
I was under the impression it was "unassisted" lookout working that was virtually banned, i.e. TOWS/LOWS/ATWS based systems were still ok? When did this all change?

Planned unassisted lookout working

Tetragon213 said:
They still teach you Red Zone Working in the PTS! (Went on mine very recently)

Still used for critical fault, failure or emergency. Which buddleia isn’t.

Jantra · Sunday at 14:04

Attached are two photo of Buddleia's growing around the end buffer at the bay platform in Caerphilly.
What amazes me is the size of the plant, which obviously has been let grow for a number of years without anyone thinking to chop it back. Are line inspections even being done these days?

Annetts key · Sunday at 14:34

Jantra said:
Attached are two photo of Buddleia's growing around the end buffer at the bay platform in Caerphilly.
What amazes me is the size of the plant, which obviously has been let grow for a number of years without anyone thinking to chop it back. Are line inspections even being done these days?

Yes, the lines will still be patrolled. Although it may be less often if a yellow banana train runs. And some sections may be patrolled by a supervisor instead of a two person patrol "gang" (which itself may only have one person that has the required competency). In any event, it's very likely that the problem has already been noted some time ago.

Vegetation management is however the responsibility of the off-track department (despite the department name), not that of the permanent way department (who carries out the patrolling).

Unfortunately with the reduction in resources that have taken place over the past years, the railway just can't cope with nature. Hence nature is currently winning...

Nicholas Lewis · Sunday at 14:42

I thought SE London was one of the worst places for Buddleia but its endemic around Manchester. For some reason it does seem to like the viaduct environments.

Mcr Warrior · Sunday at 15:32

Nicholas Lewis said:
For some reason it does seem to like the viaduct environments.

Can tolerate poor growing environments and its roots invariably take hold in the various cracks and crevices which are often to be found on walls, viaducts, etc., causing structural damage. Known to grow on slopes, cliffs, etc., in its native Asian environment.

alxndr · Sunday at 17:20

Jantra said:
Attached are two photo of Buddleia's growing around the end buffer at the bay platform in Caerphilly.
What amazes me is the size of the plant, which obviously has been let grow for a number of years without anyone thinking to chop it back. Are line inspections even being done these days?

I’ve cut down bigger bushes than this on a yearly basis when they’ve been swallowing up dis boxes that we need access to for maintenance. Each year they come back just as big. I did read on here that cutting them back encourages growth, but I didn’t know that at the time, and there isn’t much choice when you need to get to the thing inside it anyway.

No idea what size they are now me and my pocket saw have moved on from that section.

Belperpete · 2025-07-07T08:53:37+0100

Yes, cutting buddleia back just encourages it to grow thick and bushy, rather than tall and lanky.

I would have thought that with all the buddleia growing wild, there would be an abundance of butterflies, but I have hardly seen any this year.

Annetts key · 2025-07-07T10:00:08+0100

Belperpete said:
Yes, cutting buddleia back just encourages it to grow thick and bushy, rather than tall and lanky.

I would have thought that with all the buddleia growing wild, there would be an abundance of butterflies, but I have hardly seen any this year.

Butterflies love it, but do the caterpillars eat the leaves? If not, was there enough vegetation for them this year?

Envoy · 2025-07-07T13:11:56+0100

Yes, of course they re-grow when cut back. The thing to do is cut them back before the flowers to turn seed (which is happening about now - July); then let them regrow to about a foot and spray the new leaves - which absorb the poison and kill the roots. Doing little or nothing is just making the problem get worse and worse - and infecting nearby streets and properties.

Mcr Warrior · 2025-07-07T13:17:27+0100

Envoy said:
Doing little or nothing is just making the problem get worse and worse - and infecting nearby streets and properties.

Indeed. That's the nub of the problem. In the short term, doing little or nothing is likely to be easier and seemingly cheaper. But you're almost certainly saving up potential problems for the future, which will then prove to be much more costly to resolve.

Xenophon PCDGS · 2025-07-07T13:28:34+0100

When I moved into my current home earlier this year, at the end of a long back garden was a mature specimen of Buddleia Globosa, which flowers with small yellow globe-like blossoms and adds colour to the area in which the previous eldeley resident had planted it three years ago.

cin88 · 2025-07-07T19:18:22+0100

I was quite amused around this time last year when I returned from an unusually long stint away from a box that had recently had a SATWS activation point installed, only to find that the resident Buddleia had already completely overran it. They hadn't even had chance to fully commission the equipment yet :lol:

The stuff is a menace and the weed killer used nowadays seems to do nothing to it.

My house has 3 mature bushes of Buddleia in the front garden and it appears to have started infesting the gaps in the paving on my drive, I suspect the previous owner only planted one and let it get out of hand. God knows what damage its all doing and what i'll discover next year when I rip up the entire garden in advance of it being landscaped (apart from a very nice pink rosebush which I intend to take cuttings from). I do get quite a lot of butterflies though, which is about the only positive I can take from the presence of Buddleia.

Buddleia roots and the damage they cause.

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