As Autumn leaves fall, wet weather and passing trains create slippery surfaces that bring challenges for rail services. This is known as “low rail adhesion”.

Leaves on the tracks can cause conditions for trains similar to how black ice affects cars.

Safety is our top priority, and our teams work hard 24/7 treating around 30,000 miles of track each Leaf Fall season to keep our services running smoothly.

How we tackle leaf fall

Translink deploys a range of innovative tactics to tackle this issue, keep services running safely and minimise disruption for our passengers.

A special leaf-busting engineering train travels across the network, with a high-pressure water jet, cleaning the rails, before applying a layer of a sticky, gritty compound, Sandite, to improve grip.

Advances have also been made with on-board diagnostic and monitoring equipment to inform us where low adhesion is a particular challenge enabling intelligent on-train systems to take preventative measures to assist our highly skilled train drivers.

In areas most at risk from low adhesion we operate special applicators which apply Sandite directly to the tracks.

We urge passengers to keep up to date with latest travel information by using the Translink Journey Planner App, our website and our social media accounts.