Southeastern commuters face disruption because of 'leaves on the line'

Commuters are set to face days of rail disruption amid warnings of "leaves on the line" due to heavy rain and wind.

Southeastern Railway said it will run limited services on Thursday and Friday, when the weather is expected to leave a "slippery layer of mucky mulch on the rails".

Many trains from south-east of the capital to London Bridge, Waterloo, and Victoria will stop at fewer stations over the two days.

Commuters vented their fury at the company on social media following the announcement.

"You have got to be joking? This is the best one yet," wrote one Twitter user.

Andrew Clark said: "If you can forecast the problem you can do something about the problem like, I don't know, clean them out of the way?"

Kevin Hanington added: "Surely this is an April Fool! How can you have posted this and not expected abuse?"

Thousands of tonnes of leaves fall onto railway lines in autumn and can pose a safety risk by reducing the grip of trains' brakes, according to Network Rail, which employs specialist trains with water jets to clear leaves from tracks.

Southeastern sporadically implements a reduced timetable each autumn. A number of other operators across the country, although none in London, also operate "leaf-fall timetables".

Southeastern said the timetable helped to prevent last-minute cancellations.

"When leaf-fall is at its highest and rails are the most slippery, or bad weather is forecast, we will need to switch to an amended timetable," the operator said on Twitter. "It will mean that some trains will not stop at a number of stations. This is to make sure that we can get you to where you need to be with minimum delay."

Last month Transport for London revealed it was to spread glue over tracks on the Piccadilly line to try to stop leaves on the line disrupting journeys.

Details of the amended timetables are available on Southeastern's website.