TRAINS were at a standstill for almost two hours yesterday after a lorry ploughed into a railway bridge in Flintshire.

Network Rail cancelled all trains on a section of the Wrexham to Bidston line after the wagon hit the low railway bridge on the A5104 near Penyffordd at about 11.20am.

Railway engineers were called to inspect the bridge, but no structural damage was caused and the line re-opened at 1pm.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “The line was re-opened after our examiner inspected the bridge. There was no major damage to the bridge and it was deemed safe for trains to pass through.”

Police say the driver escaped uninjured, but one lane of the road was blocked while the lorry was cleared.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, but Penyffordd councillor Colin Bithell suspects icy conditions might have played their part.

He said: “I don’t think the gritters have been out and about as much as they should have been.

“The roads have been quite bad here, particularly the ones in the village that haven’t been touched.

“It’s likely that with the very early frost this morning there may well have been problems on the roads.”

A spokesman for Flintshire Council said the road was gritted.

He said: “Gritters were out through the night gritting all the major roads, principal A and B roads and major distribution routes across the county.”

The low bridge is clearly signposted as being 13ft in height, but Cllr Bithell is now calling for additional signage.

He added: “Maybe the council needs to look at the signage so that it’s properly signposted that it’s a low bridge.”

The council spokesman added: “Appropriate signage is in place warning of the low bridge.”