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

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?

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.

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.

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. 

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

Mark

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.