Media centre

Monday 15 Apr 2013

Impact of cable theft across Kent and Sussex reduced

Region & Route:

| Southern

Passengers across Kent and Sussex are benefiting from fewer delays caused by cable thieves as a result of ongoing work to tackle metal theft on the railway, new figures reveal.

Network Rail, its railway partners and organisations from other essential infrastructure industries have worked together to tackle metal theft which, at its peak, caused more than 6,000 hours worth of delays to trains nationally in a single year.

 

In 2011/12 across Kent and Sussex there were 15,458 delay minutes caused by cable theft, costing Network Rail £789,831. In 2012/13, those figures have reduced to 11,800 delay minutes, costing £541,468.

 

Dave Ward, Network Rail’s route managing director south east, said: “The reduction in delays and cost is good news for both the industry and passengers. The improvements we have seen are down to a number of factors, including British Transport Police targeting thieves and the scrap dealers buying stolen metal.

 

“We’ve worked with suppliers and other industries to make metal – particularly our cables – harder to steal and easier to identify and had teams around the network looking at new ways of working to reduce delay and fix thefts more quickly. The introduction of new laws, following our work with other industries to explain the need for change to government, will make a real difference in continuing to stifle the market for stolen metal. We are not complacent though and will continue to do all we can to reduce these figures even further.”

 

A spokesman for Southern said: “One incident of cable theft on the network is one too many as it can cause serious disruption to our services which inconveniences our passengers. However, anything that will deter thieves from committing these crimes can only be a good thing and we hope the new Scrap Metal Dealer’s Act will do just that.”

 

A spokesman for Southeastern said: “Not only does cable theft grind our network to a halt, it causes widespread disruption and frustration for our passengers. Its good to see all the hard work to tackle this problem is paying off.”

 

It is hoped that the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, which was passed by Parliament earlier this year and is due to come into force in the autumn, will provide a further boost to the rail industry’s efforts to clamp down on cable thieves.

 

The new law targets rogue scrap metal dealers who trade in stolen metal, bringing in mandatory licensing of scrap metal dealers and outlawing cash payments for metal.