Cable & Metal Theft

Cable theft costs Network Rail millions of pounds each year. The total cost to the economy – taking into account the impact of freight delays to power stations and supermarkets, and on passengers who miss appointments or have their day ruined – is even higher. The theft of metal is a big problem for the railway as thieves target signalling cables, overhead power lines and even metal fences to sell for scrap.

Britain’s rail network is designed to fail safe, which means that when a cable is cut trains are brought to a standstill. This protects passengers but can lead to lengthy, frustrating delays while the problem is found and fixed safely. A large proportion of our funding comes from the Government, so these thefts are, ultimately, costing taxpayers money.

There are 13,500 incidents on the railway each year, affecting over 400 trains each day. There are various factors influencing why people trespass. There are several measures to combat trespass but relatively few are new. Trespass incidents have increased over the last 5 years. The challenge is to address the causes of disruption, minimise the effects on the railway operations and to obtain a lasting improvement using innovative and technological improvements.