Train firms blame thieves for lateness

THEFT of rail cables has been blamed for hampering efforts to run trains on time as new figures show punctuality dipped in the first part of autumn this year.

The latest performance report from Network Rail shows passenger train companies ran 91.5 per cent of trains on time in the four-week period from 18 September to 15 October, compared to 92.8 per cent in the same period last year.

The two main London-to-Scotland rail companies – Virgin Trains and East Coast – had the poorest trains-on-time record over the period. Virgin operated only 84.5 per cent of trains on time on the West Coast Main Line in early autumn compared with 91.5 per cent over the same time last year.

A Virgin spokesman said the company had identified infrastructure issues on the line south of Rugby which Network Rail is to address at a cost of £25 million over the next year.

He added that increasing cable thefts are affecting services, with seven incidents in the four-week period. One incident earlier this month in Lichfield in the Midlands led to 60 hours of delays. “It’s a serious issue which affects not just rail operators,” the spokesman said. “As the price of copper goes up so too do the incidents of copper thefts.”

East Coast ran just 84.1 per cent of trains on time during the period, compared with 89.2 per cent over the same time in 2010. During the four-week period it suffered 23 incidents of cable theft which caused 681 minutes of delays and two train cancellations.

Spokesman John Gelson said its performance was also hampered by a number of infrastructure failures. These included a signal failure at London King’s Cross on 26 September, a fire on the Nene River Bridge in Cambridgeshire on 2 October and a points failure at Newark North Gate on 20 September.

There was also damage to overhead line equipment between Loversall Carr Junction and Retford in Nottinghamshire on 5 October.

Mr Gelson said: “The majority of delays continue to be caused by external factors outside our control.”

Yesterday saw the launch of the first national day of action to tackle metal and cable thefts in Scotland. The number of thefts has increased in recent years as the price of copper has risen from £1,876 per tonne in December 2008 to £6,343 per tonne earlier this year.

According to British Transport Police (BTP), ten people have also been killed in metal theft incidents in the last year across the UK.

Network Rail has lost about £43m over the three years to the middle of this year and over the same period, had delays totalling more than 16,000 hours.

This year, BTP have recorded 115 cable theft offences in Scotland – compared to 161 during 2010 and just three in 2006.