Stagecoach spends £4m to stop Portsmouth buses from crashing into bridges

Stagecoach, which operates the 20, 21 and 23 routes through Portsmouth, Havant and Leigh Park, is rolling out bridge-alert technology across its fleet of buses.

Data from Network Rail shows that there were 1,714 railway bridge strikes across the country in the 2019-20 financial year, with around 50 related to buses.

Now, the company will be building on its pre-existing GreenRoad safety system, using GPS to alert drivers to nearby low bridges.

In April 2018, an Emsworth and District bus had its roof torn off after hitting a railway bridge in North Street.

In January 2013, a similar incident happened with a First Group bus at Portchester Railway Station.

Stagecoach chief executive Martin Griffiths said: ‘Buses are already one of the safest forms of travel – but every year we invest millions of pounds in training our professional driving team and new technology to make our public transport operations even safer.

‘We have been working for many months with GreenRoad to design this important low bridge alert enhancement to their proven safety technology, and are now implementing it to bolster the extensive measures we already have in place.

‘We look forward to delivering the benefits from our investment across the country.’

Chairman of Network Rail, Sir Peter Hendy CBE, added: ‘Bridge strikes are an unnecessary burden on our railway.

‘I commend Stagecoach on taking the initiative with the roll-out of this technology and I hope to see other operators take a similar proactive approach to tackling the issue in the near future.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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