Network Rail gears up for Autumn as ‘Ctrl Alt Deleaf’ takes to the tracks

Friday 19 Sep 2025

Network Rail gears up for Autumn as ‘Ctrl Alt Deleaf’ takes to the tracks

Region & Route:: National

Leaves are browning, autumn is around the corner and Network Rail is gearing up for its annual multi-million-pound battle against Mother Nature and ‘leaves on the line’, aiming to keep millions of passengers and trains safe and moving over the next three months.

Network Rail has invested over £100m to tackle ‘leaves on the line’ – the annual scourge for Britain’s railways, and railways across the world - as damp, compressed leaves become the railway equivalent of black-ice on the road leading to slow running, delays and disruption.

Entering the fray is a new hero this season, revealed just this morning; ‘Ctrl Alt Deleaf’! This leaf-kicking train - named by the public in a nationwide vote - is all set to roll out for the first time next week from a depot at Effingham Junction, Surrey, where it’s been showing off its flashy new autumn-themed look. Its mission, along with an entire fleet of similar leaf-busters, is to blast leaf-mulch off the rails – treating some 1.12 million miles over the autumn - to keep them clean and keep journeys running smoothly across the country.

Lisa Angus Network Rail’s industry weather response director said: “Our leaf-busting trains are the unsung heroes of the British autumn travelling the length and breadth of the country to keep the railway running.

“The scale of the operation involved in keeping passengers moving through the autumn is monumental: Ctrl Alt Deleaf, and our fleet of leaf-busters trains, will cover over a million miles, as well as deploying fast-reaction teams and using more technology (such as drones) than ever before. Our teams will be working non-stop to try and keep the tracks leaf-free this the autumn so that passenger and freight services can continue running safely and reliably.”

‘Ctrl Alt Deleaf’ beat thousands of other contenders in the nationwide vote and saw-off other worthy contenders like ‘Leaf-Fall Weapon’, ‘Pulp Friction’, and ‘The Autumn Avenger’, to grab the top spot with half the votes.

Wrapped in new eye-catching autumnal artwork, ‘Ctrl Alt Deleaf’ was officially unveiled at the Surrey depot this morning, ahead of its official launch onto Britain’s rail network next week. The train will play an essential role in clearing leaves and keeping passengers moving this autumn.

The name reveal follows a public competition in which more than 1,300 individual name nominations were submitted before being whittled down to a shortlist of four by a judging panel of railway historian, author and presenter Tim Dunn, the minister for rail, Lord Peter Hendy, and Network Rail’s industry weather response director, Lisa Angus and then put to a public vote.

‘Ctrl Alt Deleaf’ triumphed after bagging 50% of all votes cast; well clear of ‘Leaf-Fall Weapon’ in second with 23%, ‘Pulp Friction’ in third with 14% and The Autumn Avenger in fourth with 13%.

Tim Dunn said: ‘It was fantastic to see so many members of the public get involved with naming a leaf-busting train. Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit a name and vote for a winner! The leaf-busting trains are a vital tool in Network Rail’s operation to tackle the impact of leaf fall on the railways. I'm delighted that the public has been able to honour these marvellous machines with such a fantastic name.

Notes to Editors

The 20,000 miles of railway in Britain has to cope with around 500 billion leaves every year – that’s about half a million tonnes of leaves, or the weight of 100,000 African elephants. When these leaves fall on the tracks, particularly during spells of wet weather, they are baked into a thick mulch when trains pass over them, which can prevent signallers being able to detect when a train has entered a new section of track and could lead to trains slipping and sliding resulting in drivers having to drive cautiously, taking more time to brake and accelerate..
Last year, adhesion problems as result of leaf-fall resulted in thousands of hours of train delays. As well as leaf-busting trains, the railway uses a range of different techniques to minimise the effects that autumnal weather can have on train performance. This includes using technology to help determine the safest speeds during wet and windy weather and AI to identify locations where vegetation threats are greatest as well as managing vegetation encroachment during the winter and spring
Network Rail’s fleet of leaf-busting trains will cover 1.12m miles between this month and December – almost 45 times around the planet - spraying tracks with high-pressure water jets and applying adhesion modifying gel to lessen this impact as much as possible and keep passengers on the move.

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

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