RAIL and road travel was disrupted when a tractor towing a JCB overturned and hit a railway bridge crossing the A44 in Radnorshire.

Services on the Heart of Wales Line were suspended after the digger hit the Grove Villa rail bridge at Crossgates early on Thursday evening, April 26.

Part of the bridge was badly damaged with stones having been destroyed by the large JCB.

The accident also closed the A44 in both directions until shortly before 11pm and it only reopened after temporary traffic lights were installed.

Services resumed on the Heart of Wales line as normal the following morning.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said: “Trains were unable to run over the bridge until our engineers had repaired the damage and confirmed it was safe. We worked closely with our partners Arriva Trains Wales to keep passengers moving with a rail replacement bus service until the line reopened at 23:25 that evening.

“Bridge strikes cost the taxpayer millions of pounds and delay thousands of passengers every year, so we’d like to remind drivers to check the height of their vehicles before passing under any bridges.”

Tracey Zembrzuski who lives close to the bridge took photographs of the JCB as it lay under the railway bridge. She believed the accident had happened around 5.30pm and was confronted by the JCB laying in the road when she got home.

One passenger, who had been on the 6.20pm train from Shrewsbury, praised the rail replacement service.

The woman, who asked not be named, said as well as providing a bus from Knighton which took her to Garth, she was also provided with a taxi back to the train station in Garth.

She said the train had been waiting at Knighton station for around half an hour.

She said: “We left Shrewsbury at 6.24 so would have been at Knighton around 7.30pm.

“We were sat there around half an hour when the guard announced there was a bus waiting for us. We all trooped out to get on the very comfortable coach and that drove us across Penybont Common when I expected us to turn right, but he turned left, and I thought where is he going? But he had to go that way as the road was closed as well. It had completely disabled all transport in mid Wales

“It’s normally a two hour journey from Shrewsbury to Garth but by the time I got to my front door it was nearly 10 o’clock.

“There were some passengers travelling further, one to the other side of Carmarthen, so goodness knows what time she got home and I did offer them some loafs of bread and cheese for the passengers when I got off.

“The rail authorities do deserve some praise for looking after their passengers.”

The woman added in March she and two other passengers, had been provided with a taxi, from Swansea, to home when her London to Swansea train was cancelled meaning she missed her connection for the Heart of Wales Line.