Trains thrown into chaos as thieves cut signalling cable on rail netowork

At least 66 trains were cancelled or disrupted, and others delayed by total of nearly 12 hours, after the incident just north of the Forth Bridge.

It came as the price of copper, which is used in such cabling, was trading at near record levels, which experts said encouraged thieves to take greater risks. It was the 24th metal theft-related incident on the railways this month.

Trains between Edinburgh and Fife, Perth and Aberdeen were affected for much of the day while engineers repaired the damage. Passengers on some routes were forced to switch to replacement coaches.

British Transport Police are hunting several people spotted cutting through a 650-volt cable at Glebe Park in Inverkeithing, Fife. The force said the incident was the latest of 17 thefts and seven related offences in Scotland over the last three-and-a-half weeks.

Among previous incidents south of the Border, Scotland-London trains were halted for five hours last September following a theft near Newark in Nottinghamshire.

Analysts said the thieves were being spurred on by record copper prices, which were expected to reach new highs this year.

Jon Barnes, principal consultant in copper fabricating at CRU, the former Commodities Research Unit in London, said: "There is a clear relationship between copper prices and instances of theft, and when prices are very high, thefts become more risky."

Mr Barnes said the price was currently $9,300 (5,881) a tonne, having reached a record $9,700 last year. He said: "The broad perception is that this year there will be a series of new records."

He said thieves would only get a fraction of the scrap value, which varied widely, but this had also increased, and the copper in cables was worth 80-95 per cent of the refined price.

Mr Barnes said the high prices reflected increased demand, especially from China, after decades of falling prices.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "The theft of cable is an extremely dangerous crime which has a direct impact on the everyday lives of the travelling public.

"The location of the incident yesterday meant that all services running up the east coast, north of Edinburgh, were disrupted.

"This isn't just railway crime, it's an attack on the community.

"The Network Rail team was on site immediately and performed a remarkable job to repair the signalling in time for the evening peak."

A ScotRail spokeswoman said: "We apologise for this disruption which is beyond our control. Replacement buses were operating from Perth and Dundee to Edinburgh via Fife, and also from Haymarket to stations on the Fife circle as required."