Region, Route & Location: Eastern Region | East Coast Route | Hadley Wood Station

In order for Network Rail to work towards improving the wellbeing of communities, we have located an area at Hadley Wood Station where we can experiment with the planting of trees and hedgerows.  This was set up to help Network Rail best understand how to manage lineside vegetation and protect the local biodiversity of different areas.

Hedgerows provide a multitude of benefits to the railway so a number of planting methods were experimented with to find the most effective way of implementing more into our network. We have planted a mixture of hawthorn, hazel, guelder rose, blackthorn, and dogwood to help us support nature’s recovery and adapt to a changing climate.

The hedgerow can help to mitigate the chance of an embankment collpase that tend to occur in higher temperatures, whislt also minimising the effects of rain and flood impacts.  Not only this, but effective planting increase the speed at which biodiversity in the area can be positively impacted on whilst reducing visual and noise screening towards our lineside neighbours.