Bridge hit - again "Freshford" = Limpley Stoke?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Cancellations to services between Bath Spa and Westbury

Due to a road vehicle colliding with a bridge at Freshford all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 14:00 26/05.
Train services between Bath Spa and Westbury may be cancelled, delayed or diverted. Freshford, Avoncliff and Bradford-On-Avon will not be served.

Customer Advice

A lorry has hit a low bridge near Freshford. In order for us to run trains safely, the bridge must be inspected. A Bridge Examiner is expected on site at 12:30, but until a full inspection has taken place, we are not able to run trains between Bath Spa and Westbury.

Where possible some train services will divert, meaning not all intermediate stations will be served, but we anticipate a fairly limited service.

Limited road transport will run a shuttle service between Bath Spa and Westbury, calling at larger stations in between as required. These are expected to arrive at Bath and Westbury at about 12:30. Please speak with station staff for information on where to pick up the coach.

Customers can also use their tickets on local buses if they prefer. Details below:
First Bus route D1: Bath (Bus Station), Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge, Westbury, Warminster and First Bus route D2: Bath (Bus Station), Frome (Market Place) are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice. Arrangements have been made for Great Western Railway rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys.

Noticing tickets not valid on D1x - is that because of the Manvers Street closure in Bath meaning it's not serving the station there?

[chipbury]

I think this is the 5th or 6th time the bridge has been hit this year!

[Mark A]

The vegetation was very lush on the bridge approach even a few weeks ago, and has probably not been trimmed. More could be done there to make the structure scream 'Low bridge'.

(Though we'll be well aware from the Ely-tractor debacle that nothing sort of a tazer-equipped drivers seat will help if someone's really not looking...)

Mark

[WelshBluebird]

The fact GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) arent stopping other westbound services at oldfield park and Keynsham this afternoon is madness. The official advice is to double back via Bath. Which would be great if half of those weren't disrupted too.

Thankfully I dont go to the office much these days but when I did GWR were pretty good at adding stop notices  at Keynsham when the normal stopping services had issues. Whats changed?

[Chris from Nailsea]

I think this is the 5th or 6th time the bridge has been hit this year!

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, chipbury, and thank you for your first post.

Yes, that poor bridge in our local area must have a claim to being the unluckiest.

CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum). 

[John D]

I think this is the 5th or 6th time the bridge has been hit this year!

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, chipbury, and thank you for your first post.

Yes, that poor bridge in our local area must have a claim to being the unluckiest.

CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum). 

Poor approach signage at western (A36) side.   

Never a problem other way as there is warning just before roundabout before Winsley village, and good visibility of the bridge itself that side.

Basically traffic heading north on A36 approaches Limpley Stoke (road) viaduct and is faced with a sign saying 7.5t if turn left, 18t if carry on along A36, or turn right (with no warning of low bridge).

There is then a warning sign, under multiple other signs just before a narrower stone bridge on a corner.  Needless to say virtually impossible to read that far if driving and watching the corner.

Then road runs alongside the railway, this bit had the former Camerton branch, but is now just vegetation overhanging the road.  Network Rail could easily erect a warning sign facing the road on their land (but haven't).   

Because Network Rail haven't cut the vegetation (and this is where a track was lifted, so quite a few metres from live railway), and allowed it to protrude into the road, it cuts the sightlines of the warning signs on the bridge to about 10-15m before the bridge.  The road does sharp corner under the bridge.

There used to be extra deck span for branch track, the concrete pads and different brickwork are clearly visible.  It would be easy to install a physical beam in this area (but again hasn't been done, because presumably bridge hasn't been hit enough yet to justify it)

Sort of smacks of safety of bridge being deemed less than cost of extra signs, and a vegetation crew with a battery hedge trimmer to cut the obscuring the warning signs vegetation etc.  Cost first, safety second.

[Mark A]

Thanks for this, you've motivated me to log this with Network Rail as the entire location needs a visit followed by an intervention.

As for the road verges, county boundaries in that part of the world are bananas - probably reflecting some terrible battles or other... and the location's actually in Wiltshire so I've logged it with them too.

Mark

[chipbury]

Being a resident of the Limpley Stoke area I was reading the most recent parish council meeting minutes and saw this:

Unitary Councillor for Winsley and Westwood Report- Mr Nigel White (NW) 
 
NW is still in discussion with Network Rail, Wiltshire Highways and
National Highways regarding the railway bridge problems. Signage on
the A36 needs to be bigger as vegetation is covering the very small
HGV warning sign.

Hopefully if enough people raise the issue with Network Rail they may act.

[Mark A]

Wiltshire County Council have responded: they've assessed the issue, sent photos of the obstructing vegetation to the area staff, while agreeing that the approach signage needs to be a lot more visible. To quote: "... the signage concerns brought to the attention of the Area Highway Engineer and Technician."

Mark

[eightonedee]

The "road signs disappearing into the vegetation" problem seems worse than ever this year. Almost all signs at rural crossroads, and warning signs in rural areas seem to have been engulfed in West Berks, Oxon, Hampshire and West Sussex from recent travels in the last two weeks. While I support minimising mowing of verges for encouraging wildlife, I think that not keeping road signs clear is beginning to become a safety issue as well as an inconvenience for those trying to work out where they are. 

[ChrisB]

Money to pay for it to happen vs legal requirement

[Mark A]

Please tell me someone's not just hit the thing again this evening...

Mark

[bobm]

I could tell you they hadn't but I'd be lying.  May not be until 8pm before staff are on site to inspect it.

[grahame]

As well as re-instating the double track from Bradford Junction to Thingley Junction, would it make sense to re-instate the Thingley South to West curve, and then divert one of the three hourly Trowbridge to Bath trains that way?  Some sort of service retained every time the bridge at Limpley Stoke is out, direct Melksham to Bath and Bristol services, local trains running through Corsham (and one of their big flows is expected to be to Oldfield Park).  Just asking.