East Midlands Railway Line to Reopen Following Repairs to Damaged Rutland Bridge

Passenger services between Leicester and Peterborough will resume this week after Network Rail engineers carried out emergency repairs to a bridge in Ketton, Rutland. The rail bridge that crosses the A6121 Stamford Road in Ketton, Rutland suffered “significant damage” after being struck by a lorry on Saturday 5 November. The 3.9m-high bridge on the railway between Leicester and Peterborough was struck by a lorry transporting containers to a nearby waste recycling centre. The incident caused serious damage to critical parts of the structure, which means that a significant portion of it needed to be replaced, according to Network Rail. This includes two structural beams, parts of the track and signalling equipment

Engineers Have Been Working to Carry out the Immediate.

repairs and the line will reopen in both directions on Wednesday 23 November. The line is one of only two routes for freight traffic between the Midlands and the port of Felixstowe – the other one is via London. The A6121 Stamford Road, which runs underneath Foster’s Bridge, won’t fully reopen until the vehicle collision beam is reinstated. Weather permitting, this will happen on Saturday 19 November which will allow the road to reopen by Friday 25 November. Network Rail East Midlands route director Gary Walsh said: “This has been a massive piece of work for our teams and I am pleased that the line between Leicester and Peterborough will fully reopen next Wednesday. The damage to the bridge at Ketton was substantial and we are very sorry for the impact this has causedOur teams have worked hard to carry out these repairs as quickly as possible and I’d like to thank passengers and the local community for their patience. In the meantime, passengers should continue to check before they travel and drivers in the Oakham area should avoid the level crossings in the town wherever possible on Saturday.”