trees

As well as using MPVs - which can run twice a day and cover 1.2 million miles of railway - to deal with leaf fall, trees are cut down by the rail side and weed killer is sprayed.

"We've had a very warm and sunny summer, and that helps trees build up the sugars in their leaves that create those amazing autumn colours...and we're expecting a really beautiful display this year," said Andrew Smith, Director of Forestry England's Westonbirt, The National Arboretum.

But with a record-breaking warm summer and sunshine amounts above average, trees produced more sugars in their leaves.

However, as Kevin Martin, Head of Tree Collections at Kew Gardens points out "we may not see the spectacular display when all trees change colour at once, as some trees have already changed and shed their leaves".

Known as a 'false autumn' - the leaves on some trees such as horse chestnut have already turned brown and dropped in response to the stress of drought.