From 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024, bridge strikes resulted in over 150,000 minutes of delays, equivalent to one every six hours, and which cost Britain’s railway industry around £20m in delays, cancellations, and repairs.
Britain’s most bashed bridge is in Stuntney Road in Ely, Cambridgeshire, where during the last year 18 incidents were recorded of it being struck 18 recorded incidents, closely followed by 17 incidents apiece at Stonea Road in Stonea, also in Cambridgeshire, and Lower Downs Road in Wimbledon South London.
Dramatic bridge strikes. // Credit: Network Rail
To counter the problems and inconveniences following bridge strikes, Network Rail is encouraging logistics operators and their drivers to ‘Wise Up, Size Up’ and take better care on the roads. This is a campaign that lorry drivers should check their vehicle’s height and plan their route to avoid low bridges.
To raise awareness of the problems caused by bridge strikes, Network Rail has a team of bridge strike champions who visit local haulage companies.
Despite the ongoing problems, the number of bridge strikes has fallen for each of the last two years, with a 4% reduction in the last year alone. At a local level too, there were 11% fewer strikes of the bridge at Stonea last year compared to the year before, and a resultant 65% reduction in times delayed.
Bridge at Harlaxton Road in Grantham. // Credit: Network Rail
To help prevent future bridge strikes, in February 2021 a new protection beam was installed ahead of the Stonea bridge, which will help minimise disruption to rail and road traffic caused by any future strikes. Cambridgeshire County Council also updated relevant road signs to reflect the new height of 2 metres, 10cm lower than before because of the new protection beam.
In 2023/24 the most struck railway bridges in Britain were:
Britain’s second most-struck bridge at Stonea. // Credit: Network Rail
Reported railway bridge strikes in the last five financial years:
2019/20 1,825 strikes
2020/21 1,650 strikes
2021/22 1,864 strikes
2022/23 1,588 strikes
2023/24 1,532 strikes
“Every time a vehicle hits a bridge it can serious safety issues for road and rail users. To compound matters, these incidents can delay tens of thousands of passengers while we inspect the bridge and repair any damage – creating cost from public funds which should be used upgrading and improving our network. “We’ve done a lot of work with transport partners to tackle bridge strikes and it’s encouraging to see this is paying off with a general downward trend in the number of incidents. But with a strike every six hours there’s still much to do and we urge operators and drivers to properly plan their routes, know the height of their vehicles and be vigilant for road signs showing the height of bridges. We will report those who don’t to the Traffic Commissioners and Network Rail always looks to recover the entire repair and delay costs from the driver and the operator.”
Martin Frobisher, Network Rail’s group safety and engineering director
Surely it would be a worthwhile investment to install bridge protection beams at ALL of the most critical places. Then there would be no need to stop the trains for a bridge inspection every time; just clear up the bits of broken lorry.
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Surely it would be a worthwhile investment to install bridge protection beams at ALL of the most critical places. Then there would be no need to stop the trains for a bridge inspection every time; just clear up the bits of broken lorry.