Transport for Wales /Network Rail Maintenance Works

 23 August 2024

Dear neighbour,

Station approach tree and plant management

We wanted to let you know that we’ll soon be working between Wrexham and Hawarden Bridge to manage the trees and plants in the approaches to the station.

Tree and plant management is an important part of every-day railway maintenance to protect the safety of running trains. Overgrown or diseased and dying trees, as well as vegetation can obstruct signals, reduce safe working space for our track teams, and leaf fall - particularly in Autumn - can make it difficult for trains to safely slow down and stop.

Leaf sap on the top of the rail can make it difficult for trains to brake effectively. This can result in a safety incident occurring, such as a station overrun. Station overruns occur when the train fails to stop within the platform area, this can be as little as a few metres or up to a few miles.

In previous years, we’ve carried out smaller scale vegetation reductions to protect the railway here, but a solution is needed for long term safety and effectiveness of the operational railway.

We’ve worked closely with Transport for Wales (TfW) and Natural Resources Wales, to plan a 6m reduction of trees and plants that pose a safety risk to the rail on the approaches to the station.

Before starting any work, we conduct ecology surveys and a European Protected Species check, which will look for any protected species living in the area, such as bats and dormice. This enables our teams to clear trees and vegetation in line with best practice and guidance issued to us.

The survey showed us that bats use some of these areas as a flight path, so we’ve adjusted plans accordingly, by not removing trees that don't pose a safety risk. This will help maintain the bat flight path corridors.

Before each shift, our teams carry out bird nesting checks. This means we observe any activity that may suggest bird nests are present. Once identified, the tree will carry a 5m exclusion zone, protecting it until the young have left the nest.

We typically only want to remove trees that pose a safety risk, for example the trees around these stations are mainly, but not limited to trees with large leaves (such as Sycamore, Poplar and Ash) that stick to the track, affecting the trains braking system (the sap from the leaves can create a sliding effect on the railhead).

We will remove some low-level vegetation to create safe access for our teams, which will then be allowed to flourish in next year's regrowth. Most of the low-level scrub vegetation such as brambles will be left where possible to retain habitat connections and because it helps trap fallen leaves, preventing them from blowing onto the track.

Dates and times of work are listed below, but please be aware that these may change.

Dates

Times

Monday 2 September – Friday 18 October (Monday to Friday only)

8:00am – 6:30pm

* We want to work effectively so you may see other activities on track during this time, so we don’t have to visit your area repeatedly in future.

Our work is ever moving (so we won’t be outside your home for the duration) but sometimes we may need to revisit an area to complete a task. Most of this work will be focused on station approaches.

Some evening train services will be impacted by this work so please check before you travel at https://www.journeycheck.com/tfwrail/.

We’ve also enclosed a leaflet for you to read and an FAQ document is available on request by emailing crwales@networkrail.co.uk. This expands on what to expect and why this work is essential to a healthy and balanced approach to caring for the surrounding land whilst supporting the rail network to run efficiently and safely.

The nature of our work often means some noise is unavoidable. We’re aware we will be working close to your home and will try to minimise this as much as possible, but we’re sorry if we do disturb you.

I hope this information is helpful but if you have any questions, there are several ways to contact us, by calling our dedicated 24-hour National Helpline on 03457 11 41 41, visiting www.networkrail.co.uk/contactus or scanning this QR code with your phone for more information about living by the railway.

Yours sincerely 

Community Relations

Network Rail Wales and Borders