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Wednesday 16 Nov 2022

Lichfield railway bridge in national top ten most hit by HGV drivers

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: Central

New figures show that for another year a railway bridge in Staffordshire is in the national top ten most bashed by HGV drivers.

Data released by Network Rail today (Wednesday 16 November) shows that St John Street bridge in Lichfield was hit 11 times between 2021/22, making it the ninth most struck in the country.

That is significantly down on previous years - in 2020/21 it was second most bashed at 18 times and in 2019/20 it was the third most struck in Britain with 23 incidents recorded.

In fact, St John Street became so notorious for damage that a Lichfield local set up its own Twitter account (@LichfieldBridge).

Despite the numbers going down in Lichfield, any bridge strike is one too many as the delays and damage caused are completely avoidable.

Bridge bashes cause major disruption to both train passengers and motorists and waste millions of pounds of taxpayers' money in repairs and compensation paid to train operators when their services are impacted.

Nationally, latest figures show that bridges were hit more than 1,800 times in 2021/22, costing Network Rail almost £12 million in delay and cancellation fees.

Martin Colmey, Network Rail’s Central route operations director, said: “There is no excuse for drivers to be hitting railway bridges. Everyone has a responsibility to know their vehicle’s restrictions and all of our bridges are very clearly marked to show what the clearance is. To hit a bridge with all this information available is unprofessional and negligent.

“I’m urging drivers to ‘Wise Up and Size Up’. Bridge strikes result in unnecessary delay and disruption to the road and rail networks and cost to the taxpayer. We take this issue very seriously and wherever possible we will seek to reclaim costs from the driver or company responsible.”

With more large vehicles on Britain's roads and the Black Friday and Christmas delivery rush fast approaching, Network Rail is once again urging lorry drivers and haulage operators to ‘Wise Up, Size Up’.

For 2022 a new animation has been released to make sure motorists know the height of their vehicles and choose suitable routes before they head out on journeys.

The retro-inspired cartoon centres on three high-sided vehicles navigating a low bridge in increasingly wacky ways, from pole-vaulting over it, to tunnelling underneath it.

The animation is designed to warn HGV drivers that life is not like the cartoons and to take a moment to think before taking a risk when approaching low bridges.

As part of this ongoing initiative, Network Rail has a team of bridge strike ‘champions’ covering each route across Britain, who raise awareness of the issue by visiting haulage companies and lead in managing bridge strike risk locally. 

To find out more about how bridge strikes affect the rail network, click here.

To find out more about the ‘Wise Up, Size Up’ campaign, click here.