South Yorkshire railway cable theft blitz pays off

RAIL passengers are reaping the benefits of years of work to tackle the issue of metal theft on the railway, according to the latest industry figures.

Network Rail in South Yorkshire has been working with partners in the railway and from other essential infrastructure industries to tackle this crime which, at its peak, caused more than 800 hours worth of delays to trains in the area in a single year.

Phil Verster, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “The improvements we have seen are down to a number of factors, including BTP targeting thieves and the scrap dealers buying stolen metal, our engineers developing cables that are harder to steal and easier to identify and teams around the route are introducing new ways of working to reduce delay and fix thefts more quickly.

“We have also seen the introduction of new laws following our work with other industries to explain the need for change to government.

“This will make selling illegal scrap much more difficult.

“This is a great success but we are not complacent that this issue is solved.” Passengers and essential freight services in south Yorkshire were still delayed by a total of 268 hours last year because of cable thefts.

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.