A man was arrested after a railway bridge partially collapsed in Warwickshire when it was hit by a vehicle on Thursday, leaving a key rail link damaged and services slowed into Friday. Warwickshire Police said a 64-year-old man was detained on suspicion of endangering a railway passenger and failure to stop following a collision.
Police were called to Marston Lane in Whitestone at 15:30 BST, where the bridge had been struck and the road shut between Forders Lane and Nuneaton Road. Network Rail said the bridge was seriously damaged, but no-one was injured. For passengers on the West Coast Main Line, the impact was immediate: the crash blocked a core route running between London and Scotland via the West Midlands, and services for Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway were disrupted.
By Friday, National Rail said the lines between Nuneaton and Rugby had reopened, but trains were still running at reduced speed. Services on the reopened line could still be cancelled, revised or delayed by up to 10 minutes, and disruption was expected until at least 15:00 BST. Passengers were told to check their routes before travelling and allow extra time, while tickets dated for Thursday could be used on Friday and anyone who no longer wished to travel could ask for a refund.
The damage adds to a problem rail engineers know well. Network Rail said there were 1,666 reported bridge strikes between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, most involving lorries and buses, at a cost of about £13,000 each time and roughly £23m a year in repairs. Research cited alongside the warning found more than two-fifths of lorry drivers admitted not measuring their vehicle before setting out, while 52% said they did not take low bridges into account.
That leaves the unanswered part of Thursday’s crash: why the lorry hit the bridge in the first place, and whether the 64-year-old man arrested in Warwickshire will face more serious charges. For now, the line is moving again, but only carefully, and the bridge at Nuneaton remains a reminder that one collision can still stop a main route linking London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Coventry, Milton Keynes, Wolverhampton, Edinburgh and Glasgow Central.
