Forth Rail Bridge

EDM number 1674 in 1993-94, proposed by Brian H Donohoe on 27/10/1994.

That this House notes with great dismay the significant deterioration in the structural appearance of the Forth Railway Bridge resulting from the decision of British Rail to end the continuous painting of the bridge in February 1993; notes that this decision was justified at the time by British Rail on the basis that the bridge, which carries a thousand trains a week, could afford to take a maintenance holiday for a year in order to save expenditure on its maintenance; recognises that the practice of not painting the bridge has been continued by Railtrack; accepts the need for regular painting of the railway bridge on the basis that it preserves the bridge's steelwork from the salt flecked corrosive air of the Forth estuary; recognises regretfully that current maintenance techniques have proved less effective at maintaining the structural appearance of the bridge; and calls upon Railtrack in Scotland to resume the continuous painting of the Forth Rail Bridge, which is still rightly viewed world-wide as the Eighth Wonder of the World and a magnificent, if currently more rusty, feat of Scottish ingenuity and engineering.

This motion has been signed by a total of 34 MPs.