It carries National Rail services operated by South Western Railway (SWR) on the Waterloo to Reading Line, and lies between Richmond and St Margarets stations.

The second bridge is visually similar to the earlier structure, retaining much of its aesthetics and original features despite subsequent refurbishment and maintenance programmes, including the replacement of its decking and girders during the 1980s.

[1] To address these concerns, railway officials decided that the bridge ought to be rebuilt in a new design, which was produced by the L&SWR's then-chief engineer, J. W. Jacomb-Hood.

Considerable attention was paid to the bridge's aesthetics, particularly in respect to the new steel girders that formed a core element of this new structure.

[4] Despite having received multiple renewal programmes over the course of a century, the bridge is said to have retained much of the appearance of the original 1848 structure, while a significant proportion of historic fabric has also survived through to the present day.

[1] Both the Richmond Railway Bridge itself and its adjacent approach viaduct were declared to be a Grade II listed structure in 2008.