RAIL bosses have pledged action over an emergency sign that gives a location more than 50 miles away from where it is actually sited.

The sign, on the A167 bridge over the East Coast Main Line at Sunderland Bridge, near Croxdale, a few miles south of Durham City, advises drivers to call an emergency number for help from rail infrastructure company Network Rail if they have an accident, or some other problem that could affect the bridge and train services on the line.

But the sign says the road is the A168, a route that runs from Dishforth to Thirsk in North Yorkshire, more than 50 miles away.

One resident said: "If someone has an accident and tries to report it to the emergency services, reading straight from the sign, they could give them the wrong information.''

A spokesman for Network Rail's regional headquarters in York, said: "We would like to thank the resident for raising the issue. It is an issue if the sign has the wrong road number on it.''

But she added that it was unlikely that help would be sent to the wrong location in the event of an emergency as each rail bridge also had a reference number.

"If there was an incident and someone rang our control they would ask for that detail and that would ensure that people went to the right place.

"We do have an ongoing programme of checking the signage, in the main driven by the fact that Network Rail has the responsibilities that were formerly Railtrack's (Network Rail's predecessor). A lot of the signs still have Railtrack's name and their logo on them."

Safety work, including upgraded barriers and signs, were introduced at rail bridges throughout the country in the wake of the Selby rail crash in February 2001 that killed ten people when a high-speed train hit a car that had plunged down an embankment on to the line.

The Northern Echo launched a campaign for action after highlighting concerns about the inadequacy of measures at many bridges in the North-East and North Yorkshire