Thousands of rail commuters in the West Midlands suffered long delays on Monday morning after vandals burnt and cut cables powering signals at a junction near Birmingham New Street station.

 

Network Rail said the cost to industry from the resulting signal failure will run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and warned the perpetrators that they could face custodial sentences if caught.

 

“This is taxpayers’ money which could have been invested in improving the railway,” a spokesman for the rail operator said.

 

Network Rail says it will strengthen security around sites that have suffered repeat damage.

 

Latest statistics show there were 128 incidents of vandalism on railways in the West Midlands since April last year, which cost more than £1.2M of damage and led to 14,500 minutes (or 242 hours) of delays to passengers.

 

But the theft of cables from the railways for financial gain is on the wane. Five years ago cable theft on the London North Western Route was at a high and led to around 106,000 minutes of delay to journeys. In the financial year just closed the figure had dropped to below 20,000 minutes of delay on the route.

 

Network Rail says that joint working with the British Transport Police to tackle cable theft, the Scrap Metal Dealers Act of 2013 and stiffer sentencing have led to the welcome fall in the number of incidents.

 

(Photo: Network Rail)