Reward of £1,000 over rail cable theft

Police believe that someone got onto the line and stole signalling cable at about 8.30pm on Thursday, November 18, which resulted in widespread delays though out the area and misery for many passengers who were stranded

In total, 50 trains were affected, with three services having to be cancelled.

Sgt Granville Sellers said: "This incident caused significant delays to services in the area.

"The act of stealing cable is an extremely dangerous crime which is costly to the rail industry and to the thousands of passengers who rely on the rail network.

"As part of our efforts to trace those responsible for cable theft we visit scrapyards in the area as most cable thieves look for the quickest way to sell on the stolen goods – scrapyards are one such method.

"We work closely with scrapyard owners to monitor any cable which is brought in and, with assistance from railway and telecoms experts, can quickly identify stolen cable.

"Technological and forensic advances are making life more and more difficult for cable thieves and are increasing the opportunities for British Transport Police to detect criminals."

The route director for Network Rail, Richard Lungmuss, said: "The theft of cable is a constant drain on our resources and cause of considerable disruption to rail passengers as we have seen with this latest incident.

"This is not acceptable. We are already carrying out considerable work to deter thieves and to respond to incidents quickly in order to minimise delay."

Network Rail, working with Crimestoppers, is offering the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any cable thieves. Call Crimestoppers anonymously with information on 0800 555 111.