Media centre

Tuesday 10 May 2011

CABLE THEFT INCREASES AS THOUSANDS OF PASSENGERS IN NORTH AND WEST YORKSHIRE CONTINUE TO SUFFER

Region & Route:

- More than £3.6million lost in just three years

- 40% jump in attacks in past year

- Thousands of passengers affected and delayed by more than 2,700 hours over the past three years

Cable thieves are ruining the lives of thousands of passengers in north and west Yorkshire and have cost the railway industry more than £3.6 million in three years as they target the railway for metal to sell as scrap.

Yorkshire is a hot spot for criminals who target the cables which control vital rail infrastructure such as signals and points, causing delays to tens of thousands of trains and millions of people.

National figures released by Network Rail today reveal a £43m cost to this crime-spree over the past three years, resulting in over 16,000 hours of delay. In north and west Yorkshire £3.6million was spent in compensation costs and more than 2,700 hours of delay recorded over the same period.

Richard Lungmuss, route director for Network Rail, said: “These criminal acts have to stop. Every day passengers and essential freight deliveries upon which our economy relies are being delayed by thieves looking to make a quick buck at our expense.

“Since the start of the new financial year we have had a further 16 attacks in north and west Yorkshire causing more than 91 hours delay and costing a further £81,000. I cannot over-emphasise just how serious these crimes are. Cable thieves deny passengers the service they rightly expect and, through the massive cost to the industry, deny everyone improvements to rail services.

“We are doing everything we can to protect the railway and will continue to work closely with British Transport Police and other rail partners to do everything in our power to deter thieves and bring those who attack our network to justice.”

In 2010/11 in north and west Yorkshire:

- £1.3 m was lost paying compensation for services delayed by cable theft

- Nearly 200 individual attacks on essential rail systems - a 40% jump on the previous year

- Passenger services delayed by more than 1,000 hours

- BTP North Eastern Region recorded 1,184 crimes

- BTP North Eastern Region made more than 200 arrests

DCI Derek O’Mara of British Transport Police, said: "The railways have seen significant delays and cancellations as a result of thieves cutting and stealing signalling and power cables from the side of the track.

“But we are working to tackle the issue and in the past few months have seen significant jail sentences handed down to cable thieves put before the courts.

“We are determined to send a clear message that such attacks on our critical infrastructure are unacceptable and the police and rail industry are working together to tackle the problem."

Methods used to deter and catch the thieves include:

• Dedicated BTP task force, increased patrols, intelligence led policing. Priority second only to terrorism.
• Network Rail has recently funded extra, dedicated officers
• Partnership working with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
• National intelligence cell with members from BTP, Network Rail and soon external non-rail partners.
• Use of the Network Rail helicopter, CCTV, forensic marking, trembler alarms and other devices to protect the cable.
• Fast response teams to get trains on the move as quickly as possible.
• Introduction of new type of cable that is easier to identify and harder to steal.
• Use of approved scrap yards for disposals of used materials.

Richard Allan, Area Director for Northern Rail, said: “Cable theft is an extremely dangerous crime and is one of the single biggest causes of delay to our services, resulting in disruption to thousands of our customers.

“We will continue to work with Network Rail and British Transport Police to combat cable theft on our network and look forward to seeing a reduction in the number of incidents on our network.”

Anyone with any information about cable theft should contact British Transport Police or Crimestoppers where they can report the crime anonymously and could receive up to £1,000 reward if their information leads to a conviction.

BTP can be contacted on 0800 40 50 40 and Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.