Rail disruption on routes to Penzance this week

[Vetus Ossa]

Those masons have a difficult job there, I hope they finish soon as I use that road every day.

[Mick F]

It urged lorry drivers and haulage companies to "take better care"

[Bonefishblues]

It urged lorry drivers and haulage companies to "take better care"

If only someone had had the foresight to do that beforehand

[Mick F]

Same subject, but different maybe.

Satnav.

We live on a narrow lane, and see some traffic that tries to bypass the village centre, but Satnav sends them a shorter route.
Trouble is, the "shorter route" isn't the best and most appropriate route.
Some of the stuff that passes here, is very difficult, to say the least!

The lane gets narrower and narrower the further you go, and one day I heard air brakes hissing and doing what air brakes do. The chap in the tanker lorry was rather alarmed and had to reverse and was in danger of burning the clutch out.
Luckily, he could turn in to a neighbour's place turning round and get the hell out.

[Vetus Ossa]

Btw, it's not the first lorry to get jammed under there, but previous ones haven’t caused as much damage.
Yes, and it will probably happen again.

[Jamesh]

Mrs Mick F has arrived at Preston and changing trains to go south to Ormskirk and to Maghull to stay with her older sister.
She's there for a primary school reunion for Burscough Methodist Primary School's 150th anniversary this weekend. Oldest pupils attending the reunion were there in 1939.

The family lived in Burscough - three girls - and Burscough-Girl is the middle one.
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1647
We met 50years ago in January next year. Married 48years this November.

I ran through there on the weekend small world!!

Cheers James

[Jamesh]

Btw, it's not the first lorry to get jammed under there, but previous ones haven’t caused as much damage.
Yes, and it will probably happen again.

Why don't they put a steel plate on the higher entrance preventing lorries driving in and getting wedged?

Hardly rocket science!

Cheers James

[rjb]

Surely sat navs could be programmed to warn drivers especially hgv's or any other tall vehicle.

[Jdsk]

Network Rail: "Prevention of Bridge Strikes":
2012
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... nagers.pdf
"The Department is also working with local councils and satellite navigation companies to improve the accuracy and reliability of information available to your drivers. To prevent bridge strikes, it is important that they only use satellite navigation systems appropriate to the vehicle they are driving."

Does anyone know the state of the art?

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

"Network Rail released a statement on 9 November 2020 that in the last 12 months there have been 1,714 incidents where road vehicles have hit rail bridges across Britain.
"There are an average of up to 5 bridge strikes per day with this number rising to 14 in the winter.
"Network Rail estimate that bridge strikes cost them £23 million a year in bridge repairs and compensation for delayed trains. Network rail is now looking to reclaim 100% of the cost of the bridge strike from those operators whose vehicles strike their bridges."

https://www.roadskillsonline.com/blog/h ... ge-strikes

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

Network Rail: "Useful resources to raise awareness of the risks and consequences of bridge strikes":

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-t ... e-strikes/

Jonathan

[Redvee]

Surely sat navs could be programmed to warn drivers especially hgv's or any other tall vehicle.

Proper, read more expensive, HGV sat-navs give you an option to input the vehicle height and plan a route based on that height avoiding bridges etc.

[mjr]

Btw, it's not the first lorry to get jammed under there, but previous ones haven’t caused as much damage.
Yes, and it will probably happen again.

Why don't they put a steel plate on the higher entrance preventing lorries driving in and getting wedged?

Hardly rocket science!

Because, crazily, such a steel plate would be "an additional and avoidable hazard to traffic" (see appendix B in https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... otocol.pdf ), highway authority permission for it would normally be refused and probably anyone crashing into it would seek to claim the cost of damage from the railway, whereas the railway claims from the drivers' insurers if they hit the bridge. Passengers be damned! Also, if the bridge is a listed building or in a conservation area, planning permission would also be needed.

Under current laws, it would all be a lot of extra cost for the railway which is not exactly flush with cash, just because some drivers are incompetent... and if Parliament would change laws to make it easier for the railways, there are lots of other laws they could try tightening to get incompetent drivers off the roads before they hurt people not only bridges...

[Chris Jeggo]

When I was a trainspotting lad in Burton on Trent many, many years ago pre-Beeching, we used to congregate at a level crossing which was rarely opened because most traffic used the road alongside under a low bridge. The bridge was protected by a sensor and warning system involving a light beam across the road at a suitable height. When there weren't any trains to watch, we would sometimes look out instead for approaching lorries that we judged to be just under the height limit, and throw up a jacket across the beam just after the lorry passed, setting the lights flashing and the klaxons blaring. Somehow we innocent-looking choirboy types managed to avoid getting into trouble for this, and we could always make a quick getaway on our bikes.

What a pity that system wasn't operating in Plymouth!

[Mick F]

Back in the old days ............ not that many years ago - about pre 2006? - the A30 went through Victoria rather the new A30 dual carriageway over Goss Moor.

There's a railway bridge over the Old A30 and it had (still has?) detectors for the height of the vehicles.
It didn't stop the bridge being hit and closing the line.
https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.u ... -goss-moor

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.41570 ... 312!8i6656