Why do lorries collide with railway bridges? The reasons include the UK not imposing height restrictions, bridge heights being displayed in imperial units, and a lack of cheaply available data displaying how tall structures are.
That’s according to transport consultant, Tom Reddy. In a widely-shared post on X (the social network formerly known as Twitter), Reddy pointed out several flaws in the law and driver training protocols that lead to lorries damaging railway infrastructure on a daily basis.
“There is no legal maximum height in the UK. You can run as high as you like, just don’t hit anything,” he explained. “So we got greedy with height. Europe has a four-metre maximum.”
£12 million cost of rail delays
Network Rail data shows that in the 2021-2022 financial year, a total of 1,833 bridge strikes were recorded, costing the publicly-owned infrastructure firm £12 million in delay and cancellation fees alone.
Reddy said there is a legal requirement for all vehicles over three metres tall to have a sign in the cab displaying the vehicle height, but “most drivers don’t adjust it.”
The Stonea Road bridge on the B1098 in Cambridgeshire has the unflattering title of the most bashed bridge in Britain. Drivers struck it 33 times in the year ending March 2022. This amounted to £10,526 in ‘unnecessary train delay and cancellation costs’, said Network Rail.
“Legally speaking, in the UK, it is only a requirement to display the bridge height in feet and inches. In reality, most bridges will now display both, but it is not unusual to find imperial only” Reddy said. Potentially, this could cause conversion problems for overseas drivers.
Don’t be a bridge basher
Reddy also blamed the demise of truck-specific maps and the rise of sat-navs for drivers hitting bridges.
“Know your height? Plan your route. But few do that because for the last 20 years, sat-nav has been doing that for us. Paper maps are gone. They saw this coming of course and designed HGV sat-navs, but they are still prohibitively expensive (£300+) so most drivers don’t use them,” Reddy claimed.
Network Rail chairman Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill said: “Bridge bashers cause serious safety issues on the transport network, for both road and rail users. Every incident can delay tens of thousands of passengers while we inspect the bridge and repair any damage – creating a huge cost from public funds.”
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