Railway bridge at Nailsea & Backwell Station - various incidents, merged topic

[whole diary]

[TheLastMinute]

From National Rail:

Last updated: 18/10/2008 09:38

Route Affected: Cardiff Central / London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads, Nailsea & Backwell, Weston-super-Mare & Taunton

TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)(s) Affected: First Great Western, CrossCountry

Description:

Because of a vehicle having struck a bridge in the Nailsea and Backwell area, journeys may be delayed by up to 25 minutes.

To find out how this might affect your journey, please use the real time Journey Planner, or call TrainTracker on 0871 200 49 50.

Additional Maps:   

• Nailsea & Backwell

TLM

[TheLastMinute]

Update from FGW^▸ (First Great Western):

18 October 2008
Train services between Taunton and Bristol Temple Meads are now running normally in the Nailsea and Backwell area.Engineers have worked as fast as possible to restore services to normal.

TLM

[John R]

Popped down the station at 10am to watch a charter come through and everything looked normal. But the double-headed Class 50s were good!

[Lee]

A double-decker bus striking the bridge, apparently (link below.)
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Bus-crash-Bristol-railway-bridge/article-410065-detail/article.html

There was a similar incident in Cadoxton yesterday (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3668.msg28379#msg28379

[Chris from Nailsea]

Nothing personal, but how on earth did the silly chump driving the bus even think it was going to fit under this bridge??

Pictures from the excellent 'bristol railway archive' website:

See http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Nailsea17.jpg 

See http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Nailsea18.jpg 

 

[TheLastMinute]

A photo of the bus is on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/7677869.stm.

It's funny, in in my years living in Nailsea and using the station, I can't really recall ever seeing any tall vehicles having turning around on Station Road to avoid the bridge. But this week I've seen lorries turning around twice on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and now some idiot has actually hit it! Surely this can't be coincidence!?

TLM

[Chris from Nailsea]

Agreed, TLM! 

I, too, saw that Belgian lorry driver on Thursday morning make a complete pig's ear of his attempt to squeeze under the bridge (I think he cracked his fibreglass roof spoiler on our solid English stonework!), then reverse onto (nearly into!) the petrol station forecourt to try and turn around.

Doesn't their 'satnav' equipment warn them of the well established fact that high vehicles, of any description, have been unable to pass under that bridge since about 1841??  There are road signs on the approaches in either direction, too, sited at suitable junctions before the station where high vehicles can take an alternative route before they become committed to trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle!

[Chris from Nailsea]

According to a reply on the Bristol Evening Post article (which has further pictures), at http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Bus-crash-Bristol-railway-bridge/article-410065-detail/article.html , the driver was Polish.

In which case, maybe he didn't understand that 12' 6" in English measurements is quite a bit less than the height of a double decked First bus??

[Chris from Nailsea]

From Nailsea People:

Traffic chaos in Nailsea and nearby



On Tuesday structural engineers had to be called out after an articulated lorry hit the railway bridge at Nailsea and Backwell station.

Engineers from Network Rail were called to inspect the bridge after the driver of the lorry, travelling through Backwell towards Nailsea, struck it at just after 9am.

A total of 24 First Great Western and Cross Country train services were affected running between five and 10 minutes late while the bridge was inspected.

No damage to the bridge was discovered and trains started running again as normal after about half an hour.

First Great Western spokesman Dan Panes said: "Some trains were delayed during the inspection. There was no damage to the bridge."

The driver had been travelling from Portbury to Nailsea but because main Clevedon Road is closed had diverted via Backwell.

North Somerset Coaches owner David Fricker is diverting his coaches through Wraxall during the closure.

Mr Fricker said: "The closure of Clevedon Road is really causing problems in the area as the majority of traffic is now using the BS310 through Wraxall. Already there has been a crash between three lorries on the bend by the pub. It left mud and bits of wall in the road and the road being blocked for almost 20 minutes. With HGVs being diverted this way it will no doubt be the first of many such accidents in the next few days. Lorries trying to get into Nailsea are also using Pound Lane and Silver Street because of the road closure which is causing the area to become very congested.

"One of the other problems is that the overhanging trees and hedges is narrowing the B3130 in places by six feet, making it even more difficult for large vehicles to get through. We have been asking for six months for the issue with the overhanging vegetation to be dealt with. This road closure is causing complete gridlock in some areas."

North Somerset Council spokesman Zoe Briffitt said: "We are aware that there have been a number of incidents on the diversion route, however we are happy that this is a suitable route for HGVs. The route is clearly signed and we hope to complete the work in Nailsea as soon as possible."

Buses into Bristol from Nailsea have been running up to 30 minutes late because of roadworks on the Long Ashton bypass. Mr Fricker said he has been forced to re-route his X54 express service which normally runs at 7.40am each morning from the Link Road and along the bypass into the city after it became snarled up in the traffic.

Mr Fricker took the decision to re-route the bus ^ relied upon by commuters ^ after it was delayed by around 30 minutes, meaning the average 25 minute journey from Nailsea into the city was taking an hour. The bus was diverted along Clevedon Road and up through Failand and down Clarken Coombe. But with Clevedon Road is also closed the outcome has been chaos.

Mr Fricker added: "I run three express buses from Nailsea to Bristol each morning and in the evening. The earlier buses haven't been as badly affected but the later bus which leaves at 7.40am suffered severe delays. As a result of this we immediately changed the route to go around Failand to avoid the problem area."

If buses are regularly late they can be reported to the Traffic Commissioner who can impose penalties.

[John R]

Hmmm.  When I first saw the headline I thought, I wonder...

Because several months ago I drew Network Rail's attention to the continuing lack of a height warning sign on the bridge in the opposite direction. Their response surprised me, which was that it was the local authority's responsibility to replace it, but that they would let them know it was missing. It still hasn't been done, so I was expecting the lorry to have been travelling in that direction, and to have had the excuse that there wasn't a sign warning of the limit.

You'd have thought given the problems with lorry bashing that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) would have followed up and ensured it was done.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'm posting this here because it affects that railway bridge at Nailsea & Backwell Station:

Signs on the roadside, either side of the bridge, today announced that the road under the bridge will be closed to traffic between 10:00pm on Tuesday until 06:00am on Wednesday next week.

No further details or the reason are given.

[JayMac]

I can't get a direct web link to the information I've found, so have gone for a screengrab instead. It's not actually roadworks, it's bridge work being carried out by Network Rail.



A MEWP^▸ (Mobile Elevating Working Platform) is a Mobile Elevating Work Platform. 

Further information in the pop up box, that I couldn't screengrab, says that data is from Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd and any queries should be addressed to them.

http://roadworks.org/ is a much better resource than local authority websites I find. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

A MEWP^▸ (Mobile Elevating Working Platform) is a Mobile Elevating Work Platform. 

I know: it's in our Acronyms & Abbreviations page.   

[John R]

Hmmm.  When I first saw the headline I thought, I wonder...

Because several months ago I drew Network Rail's attention to the continuing lack of a height warning sign on the bridge in the opposite direction. Their response surprised me, which was that it was the local authority's responsibility to replace it, but that they would let them know it was missing. It still hasn't been done, so I was expecting the lorry to have been travelling in that direction, and to have had the excuse that there wasn't a sign warning of the limit.

You'd have thought given the problems with lorry bashing that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) would have followed up and ensured it was done.

I'm pleased to say that following the overnight work the height warning sign has been replaced. Hopefully they did more than that during the 8 hour closure.

[Chris from Nailsea]

The replacement height warning sign referred to above has already suffered from a bridge strike: