Media centre

Tuesday 15 Dec 2009

REVEALED: THE TRUE COST OF CABLE THEFT ON REGION’S RAILWAYS

Region & Route:

| Southern

After a recent spate of cable theft incidents brought trains across East Anglia to a halt, the true cost of cable theft on the region’s railways has been revealed by Network Rail.

Not only does cable theft cause massive disruption and delays, it also deprives passengers of vital investment in their railway. According to Network Rail, which owns and maintains the rail infrastructure, there have been more than 50 incidents of cable theft or damage to cables on the Anglia route since April this year, leading to:

• the direct cancellation of almost 500 trains
• more than 2,000 trains delayed
• a combined total of almost 37,000 delay minutes to services including more than 10,000 delay minutes as a result of yesterday's incident north of Chelmsford
• £2m paid out by Network Rail to the train operators as compensation for delays – money that would otherwise have been invested in the railway

Andrew Munden, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia, said: “We have achieved record levels of train punctuality this year, with almost nineteen out of twenty trains arriving at their destination on time. However many thousands of passengers in the Anglia region have been unnecessarily delayed in recent weeks after mindless thieves brought trains to a halt. This is simply not acceptable and I am determined that we will not allow thieves to continue to bring misery to passengers.

“We are working with our colleagues at the train operating companies and the British Transport Police on a number of ideas to tackle thieves – including covert surveillance and helicopter patrols – but we need help from local people too. It’s your railway, help us keep services running reliably by reporting anyone you see acting suspiciously or let the police know of any information you have about people committing these crimes.”

Andrew Chivers, managing director, National Express East Anglia, said: "Cable theft causes considerable disruption and inconvenience to thousands of our passengers who rely on our train services to get to work, attend business meetings or in making leisure journeys. I would assure our customers that we are working closely with Network Rail and the British Transport Police in trying to prevent these crimes, and I support the positive actions that are being taken."

British Transport Police Superintendent Jim Nattrass said: “Cable theft is a significant problem for the rail industry, as it is for many industries across the country. It is not only incredibly dangerous, resulting in serious injury or electrocution for offenders, it also causes misery for passengers who end up suffering delays or cancellations to services.”

“Working closely with our partners at Network Rail we have in response set up teams of officers across the country under the banner of Operation Drum. Operation Drum officers conduct extensive covert and uniformed patrols across the network and share intelligence with both Network Rail and the train operating companies.”

Supt Nattrass said that despite a recent spike of offences there has in fact been good progress in reducing the number of offences in the past 12 months. He said: “From time to time hotspots do arise, however across the London North Area of BTP, which includes Essex, East Anglia and the northern home counties, we have seen a reduction of almost 40% when compared with last year. There is always more to be done to combat the problem and we will continue to work hard to reduce the number further and bring offenders to justice.”

The rail industry is working together in Anglia to stop cable thieves but we need the public’s help to keep the railways running. Please report any suspicious activity to the British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40.