The International Workshop on Vegetation and Trackside Land was successfully held on 1 and 2 October in Coventry. The Conference was organised by the UIC Sustainable Land Use Expert Network and hosted by Network Rail. It was the first UIC International Conference on Vegetation Management in the railway sector and was attended by more than 180 people including railway experts from 10 countries, contractors and representatives of the chemical sector.

The workshop started with presentations on managing vegetation for high speed lines and the experiences from HS1, SNCF and Japan-East were given. In the afternoon, international experts exchanged experience and best practice regarding managing herbicides, pesticides, protected and invasive species and pests and diseases.

The second day covered Sustainable Land Management Strategies according to national and European Directives, Biodiversity Benchmarking, use of GPS & GIS technologies to manage chemicals, assess vulnerabilities and mapping sensible species along the tracks.
UIC would like to thank the organising committee, Network Rail for their generous hospitality and the participants for their enthusiastic contribution to the question and answer session.