New race to reopen rail track

Bosses at Severn Valley Railway face a new race against time to reopen a stretch of flood-hit track.It comes after £10,000 damage was caused by a lorry smashing into a bridge which Severn Valley Railway officials said was another “body blow” for the line.

Now the race is on to get the line between Bridgnorth and Hampton Loade ready for its planned reopening next Saturday.

The lorry hit the bridge over the B4363 Cleobury Mortimer road in Bridgnorth, dislodging it by three inches.

Railway bosses today said the driver’s behaviour was “cowardly”, after the damage was not reported to police. It came eight months after the line was closed because of flood damage - and was the second time in three months the bridge had been struck by a HGV.

The B4363 will now be closed for two days from Wednesday for the repairs.

Phil Sowden, railway chief engineer, said he was incensed by what has happened and appealed to anyone who saw the collision to contact Bridgnorth police.

He said: “The railway is pulling out all the stops, hiring in heavy lifting equipment in order to complete repairs and run the scheduled nine days of passenger trains from February 9-17 as planned.”

John Leach, railway marketing manager, praised Shropshire County Council for its swift response in closing the road for repairs on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Railway staff will then have barely 24 hours to replace the track and reconnect all signalling, point rodding and telecommunication cables - a very tight squeak in the time remaining before trains start running again,” he said.

“It must have been an almighty bang for the entire bridge structure to be moved by as much as three inches.

“If we had been running trains as normal, I dare not think what might have happened. This lorry driver simply ran away to avoid the rap for his mistake.

“It’s a shameful, cowardly act. I really hope we find this individual. We have suffered more than enough setbacks since the railway was flooded last year. We really didn’t need this as well.”

The bridge, which has a clearance height of 13ft for road traffic, was also struck in November by a lorry driver who failed to own up.

Police managed to trace the man after an eye-witness noted his registration number.