A Grade II listed railway bridge in Steventon, Oxfordshire, has been saved after testing and a new speed limit has been introduced by Network Rail. This now means that the bridge doesn't need replacing as part of the electrification project.
The railway bridge over the Great Western Main Line was originally planned to be demolished and replaced with a higher bridge which would allow overhead wires pass underneath.
However, following feedback from the local community about how this would impact the village, Network Rail carried out the testing to see if the bridge could be saved.
This breakthrough testing, which included the use of simulation software, found that if the line speed of the railway was reduced down to 110mph through Steventon, the wires could pass underneath the existing bridge.
This is the maximum speed trains can pass under the railway bridge at, because the wires need to dip under the bridge, and then rise again at the other side.
What did the officials say?
Mike Gallop, Network Rail's Western route director, said:
“We are really pleased to have found a solution which means we can continue to safely run trains in electric whilst minimising impact on the community.
“This has been possible by working collaboratively with the Department for Transport, train operators and local authorities over the last 18 months.
“Keeping the existing bridge and using a lower speed of 110mph will increase the amount of maintenance required, but we accept this as a compromise for not removing and replacing the B4107 bridge.”
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This just makes me so angry. We have to have slower trains, and poor services due to a bridge that is on a railway line that has a right to be there and was built due to the railway. Everything should be listed in my opinion except on infrastructure routes. 110mph is a snail pace today (and so is 125mph on rest of the line which is easily 140mph capable). Utterly insane that people can send the UK backwards in this way.
The government stopped electrification to Oxford Bristol and Swansea because of a cost. If the government is going to electrify to Oxford??. Hopefully they’ll pay for the Cardiff to Swansea electrification instead of the HS2 that I will never use but pay for 🚂🤔
Probably because the bridge structures are high enough to allow live 25kv overhead wires to pass underneath the bridge.
Did the government cancel electrification to Oxford?????
🚋🚋🚋🚋🤔