Railway bridge is most bashed

Cleland tops the Lanarkshire list

The railway bridge at Carlisle Road in Cleland is Lanarkshire’s most bashed, with 55 lorries hitting the low structure since 2009.

It has also been revealed as the 19th most struck across the UK, as Network Rail launches a new campaign to help HGV drivers stop striking railway bridges and causing needless disruption to rail and road users.

The railways suffer almost 2000 bridge strikes every year, costing the taxpayer some £23million in damages and delays across Britain.

In Scotland a bridge bash takes place on average once every two days and the five most struck structures in the country are Beith Road in Dalry (57), Carlisle Road in Cleland (55), A75 Dunragit (50), Cook Street in Glasgow (37) and Greenhills Road in Paisley (37).

Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail and a driver of a double decker bus himself, said: “Size does matter when you’re a professional driver in a heavy vehicle.

“Not knowing the size of your vehicle or load could lead to a serious accident, and the loss of your licence.

“Every incident creates potential delay for tens of thousands of passengers and potential costs for taxpayers, and this is happening multiple times a day.

“It’s only a matter of time before road or rail users are killed as a result of this carelessness. We need professional HGV drivers and their operator employers to get behind and support this campaign to eradicate bridge bashing, which reaches epidemic levels at this time of year.”

The number of strikes peaks around now, rising to almost 10 per day. Research suggests this could be due to the hour change and increased deliveries ahead of Christmas. Figures show most bridge strikes happen between 10am and 11am, but remain high all day until around 6pm in the evening and can cause hours of travel chaos. Research has found: • 43 per cent of lorry drivers admit to not knowing the size of their vehicle

• 52 per cent of drivers admit to not taking low bridges into account when planning their journeys

• Five bridge strikes happen across the country everyday - with a peak of 10 a day in October

• On average, each bridge strike costs £13,500 and causes two hours of delays to train services

Network Rail’s bridge bash campaign ‘What the truck’ will involve:

• Engaging the haulage and public transport industries

• Fitting steel beams on rail bridges where there are a large number of strikes to reduce the impact, resulting in less damage to infrastructure

• Working with local authorities to ensure road signs displaying bridge heights are correct and up to date

• Calling for stricter enforcement of penalties for drivers when strikes do happen.

Network Rail has been working across the industry, getting key players on board and banging the drum about the issue to stop strikes before they happen.