Thieves cause train delays
Published on Tue 3 Jun 2008
A spate of thefts of copper cabling from the Welsh railway network has caused an increasing number of train delays. Superintendent Peter McHugh of British Transport Police said the offences had increased by 31% in the past year. The thefts cause significant delays to rail services. The problem is part of a national trend. Across Britain in 2006-07 243,717 minutes of delays were caused by the theft of more than £4 million worth of copper cabling.
A spokeswoman for Network Rail said copper theft did not put travellers’ lives at risk, but caused widespread delays. "Because of the fail-safe system on Britain’s railway, any removal of cable from the operational railway simply turns all signals in the area to red, and brings all trains to a halt," she said.
