Dry ice tech has been demonstrated at the Wensleydale Railway. The tech is going to be attached to the front of the train and it is going to mean great things for the rail sector. Dry ice pellets are fired at speed from the railhead, and this essentially freezes the leaves that may have fallen on the track. The great thing about this is that the frozen leaves can then be blasted away. The dry ice pellets will then be turned into gas. Of course, this has been developed for quite some time and the tech has recently been put through the paces. The partnership is being done with the train operator and it is going to be a huge movement for the industry. The next step would be of course, to try and find a solution to handle trickier Autumn conditions. Rob Cummings has released a statement saying that seasonal improvement is to be expected and that one of the biggest risks would be to have leaves on the line. This new and innovative tech is going to mean that they can carry on delivering the best possible service to all passengers. Funding from the Network Rail Performance Innovation Service has helped a series of researchers to buy two Pacer trains which have since retired. They are going to test out the design while also look into ways to support the removal of leaves over the long run.

Fallen leaves on the rail lines are cleaned by using the railhead treatment but at the end of the day, there are really only a limited number of trains available right now. They cannot treat the network as a whole and new ice blasts on the system could well be attached to any train. This makes it incredibly sustainable.