The LNER Encyclopedia

I think everyone will agree that permanent way 'hygiene' is nowhere near what it was a few decades ago. Weeds are allowed to grow on the tracks, shrubs between the tracks and, worst of all, trees are allowed to take root in the cess and allowed to grow to the extent that they have to be 'sculpted' to enable trains to pass underneath. Even so, in many cabride videos I watched, trains are scratched by branches as they pass.

What I find particularly ugly is the unsightly way that weeds are allowed to grow in and around tracks at stations, even between the tracks and platforms. Is there some problem with weed suppression in these areas? Is there concern that herbicide will blow onto passengers and staff?

This is not solely a UK problem, as I have seen while watching some French cabride videos. The tracks are clean and tidy until until a station, then lo and behold, a jungle of greenery.

I always thought that over time, weeds tended to destabilise the track. Perhaps with the advent of concrete sleepers, this is no longer so. Does anyone know what Network Rail's policy is on weed suppression and the cutting back/removal of lineside shrubs and trees?

I became aware of the growth in lineside vegetation encroaching onto the railway on several lines around the north London area towards the end of the 1980s. About 3 or 4 years ago when riding on the top deck of a 390 bus along York Road that runs along the east side of Kings Cross station I notice in particular a clump of fairly tall growing weeds growing beside the points work opposite the 1971 Kings Cross power box in the throat area just before Gasworks tunnel and I did think to myself when I saw those weeds 'couldn't have someone maybe in the p.way when they were doing points maintenance on the points beside those weeds had just pulled them out of the ground' because at onetime I have a vague feeling that the p.way department possibly going back to the dawn of railways and lasting well into the British Rail era had responsibility for keeping the p.way (track) and lineside in a fit and tidy condition.