Top-sliced: the bus driver’s training manual clearly said nothing about not taking the turn on to Portland Road
Rail services were suspended into and out of Norwood Junction, while Portland Road was closed to traffic for a period this afternoon after a double-decker bus drove into the railway bridge which carries one of the main lines from Croydon to London.
Apparently, the bus driver involved was undergoing training.
Eyewitnesses at the scene suggest that no one was hurt in the collision, which sliced the roof off the double-decker.
A sharp-witted Inside Croydon reader wizzed a couple of photos over from South Norwood. It is not the first occasion when this kind of collision has happened, but locals remain baffled how such an avoidable incident can recur so often.
Crunch: collisions into the bridge out of Norwood Junction Station happen all too often
At 12.19pm, Southern Railway tweeted: “A road vehicle has collided with a railway bridge in the Norwood Junction area.
“Due to the nature of the incident, all lines in this area have closed to ensure safety. Your journey will be disrupted.”
Journey times were “extended by up to 30minutes”, according to Southern, who advised passengers to consider taking an alternative route. Though not along Portland Road, obviously…
Trains between Victoria and West Croydon were affected, as were services between London Bridge and Uckfield, Epsom, Caterham and Tattenham Corner – so something that needs fixing urgently, before the start of the Derby meeting tomorrow.
By 1pm, Southern was saying on its socials: “All lines through this area have now reopened and you might no longer need to use an alternative route.
“However, trains need to run with a speed restriction over the bridge until normal train running speeds can be resumed.”
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It really sounds like something comedic out of a Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em episode if it wasn’t so annoying for the unnecessary inconvenience it must to have caused for everyone.
I wonder what was his/her instructor was doing at time of incident?
I know learning drivers will get punishment from operation GO-AHEAD. I wonder what’s
Punishment for instructor?
Let’s hope all are safe and well.
The drivers public carriage licence, if it’s ever passed, might be restricted to single decker vehicles… Though I can’t talk, when operating one of the new OMO [one-man-operated] busses with newfangled automatic gears in 1973, I managed to put it in reverse at 30mph, resulting in an instant conflagration in the gearbox…
The poor learner driver was very poorly supervised. And with sat nav, this should never have happened. Was the bus equipped with it? Was it working and switched on?
If the bus was being used to train a driver , then the bus would have followed the 197 route -up Doyle Road , down Clifford Road and then turn into Portland Road. The bus could not have gained sufficient momentum to go fully under the bridge from a stationary position in Clifford Road. The bus was going at least 30 mph to go fully under the bridge. So I suspect a qualified driver was behind the wheel and was on Portland Road the whole time and using the bus for another reason-transferring to a different depot or a mechanic on road test.
As for Sat Navs , they are not used on London buses. No need as buses are on fixed routes with fixed diversions in place for use as required.
It seems I was partly right , and partly wrong. It was a trainee driver behind the wheel , but crucially the bus did not follow the 197 route. The bus stayed on Portland Road throughout , hence the high speed.
Does not explain why the instructor did not operate the emergency brake. The instructor had an off day ( or a roof off day )
I heard this from a 312 driver.
As a bus driver myself I can say they don’t use sat nav.. you route learn visually a few times until you get it and remember every turning and landmarks
Norwood always was “a bridge too far”
Not on D-Day -1