According to The Times of 10 September 2019 Network Rail, which maintains Britain’s network of railway lines ‘lets Japanese knotweed [currently known as Reynoutria japonica, formerly known as Fallopia japonica]  blight homes’.  Thousands of properties are ‘blighted’, in some cases leaving their owners unable to sell them, due to the knotweed being exterminated.  Since 2011 Network Rail has received some 11,000 complaints, including more than 6,000 complaints that the plant is spreading on to private property.  1,650 complaints were lodged in 2017, and 1,521 in 2018.

In the year ending March 2018 Network Rail spent £1.2 million ‘fighting’ knotweed, thus funding the treatment of about 600,000 square metres.