Traffic chaos as brand new £350K bus gets stuck under railway bridge in Backwell

A brand new bus that only went into service earlier this year has been badly damaged, and its driver badly shaken after it got stuck under a railway bridge.

The incident happened on Station Road at Nailsea and Backwell Station, and brought traffic chaos to both towns on the evening of Tuesday 21 July.

The driver is understood to have just finished his route in North Somerset and was heading back to the bus depot in a six-month-old biogas bus when he decided to return via Backwell.

With the bus no longer in service, the electronic signage on the front of the bus was displaying one of First West of England's public health messages about the coronavirus pandemic - and at the moment the bus became wedged in the arch of the bridge, the message on the front read 'Stay Alert'.

The incident happened at around 7pm, and for more than an hour, police had to close the main road between Backwell and Nailsea, while First Bus and Network Rail sorted out the situation.

The bus was eventually reversed back out from under the bridge, and positioned around the corner into Station Close, the road on the Nailsea side of the railway line.

Network Rail assessed the structure of the bridge, and soon permitted trains to continue travelling over the bridge.

The driver was understood to have been uninjured, but badly shaken by the experience.