Tuesday 31 Oct 2006
BIGGEST EVER CAMPAIGN UNVEILED FOR AUTUMN LEAF-FALL BATTLE (EAST ANGLIA)
- Region & Route:
- Eastern: Anglia
- | Eastern
- A 24-hour control centre manned by a team dedicated to tackling autumn
- Six water-jetting trains shooting out water at an equivalent pressure of 1,000/bar (up to 1,000 times faster than the water coming out of your tap) will be getting rid of ‘leaf mulch’ across Anglia’s railway
- 18 offices around the Anglia region fitted-out with ‘leaf busting’ equipment and working to identify problem areas
- Three, two-man ‘leaf busting’ crews will be using rail head scrubbers, sand sticks and Natrusolve, which dissolves the leaf mulch
- Traction gel (Sandite) applied to rails - approximately 450 miles of sandite laid every 24 hours around the Anglia region
- The latest satellite navigation technology to reach hot-spots as soon as possible
- Nine rail head treatment trains in operation in Anglia round the clock
Notes to editors
Autumn costs the rail industry approximately £60 million per year, including: £10 million for vegetation management, £34 million for autumn train borne operations, £5 million for ‘hot spot’ teams and other staff/operational costs, £10 million for damage to trains and track from leaf fall Weather and seasonal factors account for 10% of all delay minutes across the network in any one year There are 21,000 miles of track nationally to keep clear there are six species of trees which cause particular problems. They are all deciduous, broad-leaved and thrive by the railway: Ash, Sycamore, Poplar, Lime, Sweet chestnut, Horse chestnutContact information
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