Metal thieves cause chaos on rail network

About 11,000 trains have been delayed by metal thieves ripping up cabling from the country's rail network in just a year, it was revealed today.

Network Rail said £35 million of copper had been stripped from rail lines since 2006, when rising metal prices triggered a nationwide crimewave that has seen lead stripped from churches and brass door knobs stolen from front doors.

And today it warned that the annual cost of the problem for Network Rail would hit £20 million a year by 2014.

Between April 2009 and April this year, there were 85 cable thefts across the West Midlands rail network, leading to 462 trains being cancelled and other services being delayed for a total of 74,000 minutes.

Network Rail said £4 million was paid out in compensation to train operators and in replacing the stolen metal.

In June, British Transport Police put up a £1,000 reward in a bid to catch a teenager who stole cable from the rail network in the Bloomfield Road area of Tipton.

And in May, trains across Staffordshire and the West Midlands were thrown into chaos after metal thieves targeted Bescot Stadium station, making off with up to 65ft of cable.

Shortly after the theft, which happened at a section of the railway line near Morrisons in Wallows Lane, staff at the station reported a complete failure of signalling equipment

Hand signalmen with old-fashioned flags and lamps were used while electronic equipment was fixed.

Dyan Crowther, Network Rail's director of operational services, said today: "Metal thieves targeting the railway are causing misery to thousands of passengers and freight users, and costing the industry, and the wider economy, tens of millions a year and rising."

Det Con Bill Rackham, of British Transport Police in the West Midlands, added: "Those who attempt to steal cable are also putting their lives in serious danger by trespassing on the railway and also because of the high voltage that runs through live cable.

"Those who steal cable are not only risking a prison sentence, they are risking their lives."