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Greater Anglia and NR promise measures to tackle autumn leaf fall

Greater Anglia, with help from Network Rail, is investing in new equipment and introducing a revised timetable to reduce the impact of autumn leaf fall on rail services.

Leaves on the track at this time of year can form a mulch, which is then compressed and hardened by train wheels until it is as slippery as black ice, causing wheels to lose grip and become damaged, and cause electrical circuits on the tracks to fail.

Greater Anglia and Network Rail have jointly invested in a specially-adapted Land Rover, known as a Sand Rover, which can be driven onto the railway, where rail wheels are lowered onto the track, allowing it to clean and treat the track.

Richard Schofield, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia, said: “We have been working together with Greater Anglia on a package of works that aims to keep train services running as smoothly as possible this autumn and winter.

“We understand the inconvenience caused when problems occur, and our engineers will be doing everything they can to keep passengers moving.”

The Sand Rover will be deployed on the line between Marks Tey and Sudbury, which specialist trains cannot reach.

Greater Anglia has also invested in a mobile wheel lathe at its Crown Depot in Norwich, which will fix some of the train wheels damaged by slippery rails without the need to send them away, reducing the time they are out of service. In addition, extra slots have been booked at other wheel lathe locations.

Trains on the regional routes in Norfolk and Suffolk will undergo modifications to improve their automatic sanders, which deposit sand onto the rail when the brakes are applied, to prevent the train wheels slipping.

All trains have been fitted with a monitoring system that reports when and where a train experiences slipping.

The data will be used by Network Rail engineers to find and clean the affected track as quickly as possible.

From this week, Salhouse, Brundall Gardens and Roughton Road on the Bittern Line between Norwich and Sheringham, which is a problem area for leaf fall, will become ‘request stop only’ in order to help maintain service.

From 3 October, trains for London have departed five minutes earlier than usual during the morning peak to help maintain arrival times into London.

Furthermore, Network Rail will work to continue trackside vegetation, and has already replace trees at Brundall Gardens station with bushes and shrubs that do not shed leaves.

It will also run six rail head treatment trains each day and night during the autumn season. They clean the rails and apply a layer of sand-like substance to the rail to improve grip. Engineers will visit areas that can’t be accessed by the rail head treatment train.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia’s managing director, said: “We are acutely aware of the frustration and inconvenience felt by our passengers when things go wrong, so we are pleased to be taking action in partnership with Network Rail, making additional preparations to protect train services during what is traditionally a difficult period on the railway. We will be doing all we can, as ever, to get our passengers from a to b reliably, on time and in comfort.”

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