A railway bridge between Rugby and Nuneaton partially collapsed on Thursday after being hit by a vehicle, shutting all lines on a busy stretch of the West Coast Main Line and disrupting trains through Warwickshire until at least 17:00 BST on Friday.
Network Rail said services would be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or diverted via Birmingham, with some trains starting or ending on either side of Nuneaton or Rugby rather than running their full journey. Travellers were told to check online journey planners before leaving and could ask for a full refund if they no longer wanted to travel because of the delay or cancellation.
The incident happened on Marston Lane in Whitestone, Nuneaton, where the road was closed between Forders Lane and Nuneaton Road. Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service said crews were called at about 15:30 BST on Thursday to reports of a lorry hitting a railway bridge there, and it later emerged that no other vehicles were involved.
That detail matters because Network Rail said there were no reports of injuries, even though part of the bridge had collapsed after the impact. Fire crews stayed at the scene while structural engineers assessed the damage, a reminder that the immediate danger had passed even as the infrastructure problem remained unresolved.
Network Rail said its teams were working to assess the damage to the bridge and keep passengers moving, but the wider picture was still unsettled. What remains unclear is how extensive the damage is and when the line will fully reopen, leaving passengers on one of the country’s key rail corridors dependent on short-term fixes and revised timetables into Friday evening.
