£13m of metal cabling on railway tracks is stolen

More than £13 million worth of metal has been stolen from railway lines in the past three years – with £600,000 alone stolen from a line in Wolverhampton on one day.

The theft from Loxdale Street in Bilston is the biggest single haul taken, according to British Transport Police.

A total of 150 metres of fibre optic cable and 18 kilometres of earth bonding cable worth £300,000 each went missing from the line on July 18.

Latest figures show there were more than 6,000 metal thefts on the railways between April 2008 and October this year.

Another £300,000 haul of train buffers and components was stolen in Stoke-on-Trent in December 2009.

Figures have been released as insurer Ecclesiastical revealed that 2011 was the worst on record for the number of claims made by churches for metal theft – with Lichfield Diocese the third worst hit nationally.

It recently emerged that metal thieves are targeting West Midlands railways almost every day, causing hundreds of train services to be cancelled.