Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, with respect to vehicles colliding with railway bridges, (1) how many instances were reported in the last five years, (2) how many reported instances resulted in delays to trains of (a) up to six, (b) up to 12, and (c) over 24, hours, (3) what overall compensation was due to operators and passengers, (4) in how many instances the vehicle operator was prosecuted, (5) what was the range of penalties imposed, and (6) what plans they have to review the related liabilities and offences.

The total number of bridge strikes in past 5 years can be found in the table below:

Network Rail’s statistics report all delay and cancellation minutes for all the services affected by a specific bridge strike; they are not divided up for delays on individual journeys. The average delay and cancellation minutes attributed to bridge strike events for 2020/21 is 42 minutes, down from 273 minutes in 2019/20, partly due to reduced network operations. The Schedule 8 compensation costs for delays and cancellations due to bridge strikes are £5.5 million for 2020/21, down from £11.5 million in 2019/20, again due in part to reduced network operations.

Information pertaining to prosecutions and the range of penalties imposed upon prosecuted drivers are not held by the Department for Transport. Any plans to review the related liabilities and offences would be a matter for the Ministry of Justice.