LEAVES are to be removed from the railway lines around Rishton station to make the track safer.

Vegetation growing on both sides of the line, between Churchill Avenue and Hawthorne Drive, is to be removed today in a project expected to take just one day.

Plants will be cleared with the exception of a privet hedge by the allotments, and laurels on the opposite side of the line.

Workers will also leave the majority of oak trees. Any other trees found to be diseased or dangerous will be removed. Vegetation on the motorway side of the line will be turned into chippings, and those on the residential side will be felled and left on site to rot naturally.

Gary Openshaw, Network Rail's area general manager, said: "Leaves on the line may be a bit of a joke but they are a serious safety problem for the rail industry.

"There were a number of instances last autumn in the Rishton station area involving trains slipping and sliding on tracks contaminated with leaf mulch, so we are acting to stop it happening again."