Embankment work @ Croxley

They say coppiced at ground level, so the density should grow back over the next seven years, although the height will be lost forever. I don't know what it looked like before - any before and after shots anyone?
They did the same to the WCML/LOROL about 8 years ago - the bats were not happy.

Railways arn't supposed to be beautiful (apart from some magnificent bridges and such!). The trees are a known factor for causing delays, erratic timetable workings, train damage and possible SPaDs. The trees should be assessed and removed accordingly. The company are doing what is necessary to avoid such incidents. I think it is about time too!

Hm, CharleyFarley; rather harsh.
Apart from the fact that for the vast majority of people it's budget and location that constrain their choice of house...
(1) Noise - A home buyer would think long and hard about the noise issue and even try it out. I did, and it was intrusive but liveable with. Then someone changed the situation - a train every 2.5 minutes instead of every 10 minutes (Croxley Rail Link) = noise increase. Class 378 instead of the old 313's = decrease in noise. Bakerloo line 72 stock will be a vast increase in noise. Not sure about the S-stock. So you could buy a home in the middle of the country, away from the railway line, but someone still might decide 1500ft above your house would be a good place to route 747 cargo planes en route to a Midlands airport.
(2) Privacy - Too many damned fences are going up all over the country. They can wreck the light-fall into a garden and destroy established planting, lawns etc., and they require environmentally unfriendly chemical treatments.
(3) Sometimes a little urban wildlife is a bonus for people who have detached themselves from nature. But my comment about bats wasn't for the benefit of the residents, but for the benefit of the bats themselves, who use tree-lines as guides to their feeding grounds, from underneath bridges and in tunnels following the tree-line to feed on, say, the midges that swarm above balancing ponds.
(4) A point not mentioned is the wind-break effect that a line of trees has, or the ability of a line of trees to stop a carriage rolling down an embankment in the event of a derailment as happened at Watford in 1996. And there is still a debate over the stabilising effect of tree roots on embankments and cuttings.

There's a balance can be achieved, but this situation where no or minimal vegetation work is done for years on end, followed by a complete slash and burn, is bound to cause bad feeling with the residents. No-one is saying that the company shouldn't perform trackside management, just that it could be done in a much more sympathetic way.