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I'm a lumberjack and I'm alright

If you’ve looked out of a train window lately, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Monty Python team had just passed their PTS. Lumberjacks are everywhere. Trees are coming down by the forest-load and being atomized on-site. Contracts must be blowing about like confetti in the wind.
Trees are coming down by the forest-load and being atomized on-site. Contracts must be blowing about like confetti in the wind.

Regular readers of this site might think that I’d be elated by the prospect of Network Rail finally doing something about lineside conditions. Well yes, it’s a start as far as it goes, but a bigger opportunity has been missed.

When the treefellers entered the railway boundary, why didn’t they start the job by reinstating the cess from the access point to the first tree they were about to cut down? Then onto the next, and the next. I know I’m treading a well-worn path with this article, but it seems a more sensible way forward than walking along the track in a red zone. The return journey would be just as daunting.

Planners would be in paradise if these fellers were allowed to create their own cess as they went, meaning most of the work was done green zone. This would have killed two birds with one stone - first, as the cess was reinstated, the lads would have somewhere to walk without heading for the four-foot and, secondly, they’d then have a safe place to go when trains passed.

Under the present system, instead of a tree or bush, we’re left with a pile of mulchy cuttings and the cess is no more fit for purpose than it was before work started. Where there was once a cess, there is now a mess.

So who’s benefiting from this exercise?

Train drivers should get a better and earlier view of signals. Fewer trees should mean fewer problems come the autumn leaf-fall season. And the lineside environment has a better appearance for the passengers to look at. But are the lads any safer?

If I was a cynic, I would probably tell you that the lads don’t feature too highly on the management’s list of priorities. So am I a cynic? You work it out!

Story added 1st July 2007

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