Britain’s prestige railway line, the East Coast Main Line, was blocked again on Thursday (31 July). A vehicle, understood to be a commercial truck, hit a bridge south of the seaside resort of Dunbar. The incident happened just before 0900, triggering a “code red” alert – the most serious level. Railway authorities were forced to halt all traffic while inspections were carried out.
The route of the Flying Scotsman was blocked this morning by a severe bridge strike. The incident was located about 30 miles (50km) south of Edinburgh. Multiple operators of freight and passenger services saw their trains halted, then delayed, then cancelled. Disruption soon spread north and south of the incident. Trains backed up at the busiest time on the busiest day for the route.
Multiple operators affected
The Edinburgh International Arts Festival begins on Friday (1 August). It’s the biggest arts festival in the world, and attracts more than half a million visitors to Edinburgh. Over 3,000 shows are scheduled for the opening day. Almost all of them are performed by performers from London, apparently. That generally means the day before (31 July) is the busiest day of the year for the East Coast Main Line. Not the best of times for a bridge strike to block the line. Unfortunately, that is exactly the scenario that multiple operators faced today.
The East Coast Main Line is a very busy mixed traffic route. The northern section of the line originates traffic, mainly passenger from Edinburgh, but also freight from various locations, including industrial works at Dunbar, nearby where the incident happened. The intense level of passenger service on the line, provided by LNER, Lumo, CrossCountry, TransPennine and ScotRail, is also augmented by through intermodal and bulk freight services from DB Cargo, DRS, Freightliner, Colas and GB Railfreight. The route is also popular with charters. All the regular operators were affected.
The plot thickens
According to unconfirmed reports from onboard train staff, the bridge strike was due to a goods truck carrying an abnormally high load. The vehicle was carrying a stack of empty bulk refuse hoppers (commonly referred to as “skips”). This raised the overall height of the vehicle beyond the normal load of a single skip. Whether due to driver carelessness or not, the bridge was struck with enough force to trigger a “code red” alert – the highest level. That required all operators to immediately stop all traffic on the line.
Operators were forced to cancel some services, particularly departures from Edinburgh, where platform space at Waverley station soon filled up. Services began departing again after about 90 minutes, with consequent delays. Just as trains began to roll from Edinburgh, news broke of a further disruption on the southern end of the line. Perhaps it’s the plot of a new play for the Edinburgh Festival.