Thousands of bridge strikes delay your journeys every year.
They typically happen because a lorry driver hasn’t measured the height of their vehicle and so drives into a bridge that’s too low.
They’re a huge problem for our railway so we’re trialling an innovative detection system to help us repair and reopen bridges faster after an incident.
Delays and disruptions
Bridge strikes are among the most common reasons for train delays so we’ve teamed up with risk-management consultant BES Group to trial a system on one of our most struck bridges.
The Harlaxton Road bridge in Grantham, Lincolnshire was one of the top five most-struck bridges in Britain last year. It carries trains on the East Coast Main Line above it and has six roads converging beside it.
It has high-profile signs, chevrons and protective beams but was still hit by vehicles 14 times in 2023 to 2024.
It was then hit three times in one week in early November 2024, the worst of which caused £423,000 in damage and 59 hours of delays.
Real-time data
We hope our £50,000 trial to test this pioneering tech will help reduce the delays and costs caused by bridge strikes.
The remote monitoring system uses cameras and sensors to give real-time alerts and collect data and video footage. Cameras will give visual indications after a bridge strike, while the sensors will measure the impact and check the bridge and tracks.
This means engineers can check the bridge remotely in seconds rather than hours after it’s been hit. This will minimise disruption to services and keep our staff safer by reducing the time they spend on track.
We’ll install the same system on other suitable railway bridges in the region and further afield if the trial proves successful.
Wise up, size up
We work tirelessly to get the railway running and you moving once again after a bridge is strike but bridge strikes are entirely avoidable.
That’s why we urge lorry drivers and haulage operators to ‘wise up, size up’by checking the height of their vehicles and planning their route in advance to avoid low bridges.
We also have a team of bridge strike champions covering all our routes and making proactive visits to haulage companies.
Michael Clegg, a route engineer at Network Rail, said: “While we know we cannot prevent all future incidents, this technology will cut the inspection time after a bridge strike from hours to seconds in many cases.
“This means we can have trains running again much sooner after a bridge strike, providing a boost to the reliability of the railway and saving potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
