UK: Copper thefts from railways escalating out of control

[John Ashworth]

Copper thefts from railways escalating out of control, warns union leader

Bob Crow calls on rail train companies to get a grip, as Essex commuters suffer delays

Dan Milmo
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 September 2011 16.32 BST

The problem of cable theft on the railway network is "out of control", a union leader warned as passengers suffered fresh delays during the Friday morning rush hour.

Services run by c2c between Essex and London were hit after a theft at Rainham, the latest in a spate of incidents in recent months causing huge disruption to train services across the country.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said rail firms were partly to blame. "The problem of cable theft on the railways is escalating out of control. If a chunk of the excessive profits of the train companies was invested in visible staffing, track patrols and security, we could get a grip on this criminal disruption to rail services."

Alan Pacey, assistant chief constable of the British transport police, said the threat to railway infrastructure was unlikely to recede because of the scale of demand for copper.

The price of copper has more than doubled since 2009 to more than £5,000 a tonne. "The need for copper, particularly in some of the growing economies like China, is going to mean that there is always going to be demand. External analysis predicts the price staying high or increasing so we know we have a challenge," said Pacey.

According to one rail industry estimate, copper theft costs the UK economy £770m a year.

Pacey echoed the rail industry's call for a crackdown on rogue scrap metal merchants who process stolen copper with no questions asked. "The core issue is new legislation around scrap metal dealers and the metal recycling industry, particularly around better licensing and better identification of who is bringing the metal in."

Robin Gisby, Network Rail's director of operations, said: "Nothing has changed since the 1964 Act. Scrap metal is still a cash business. We believe that the quickest way round this is to make scrap metal a business that is properly accounted and documented."

He added: "We have written to ministers to try and get this legislation changed. We have got to stop the supply chain working in some way. Our view is: regulate the scrap merchants, make them worry about receiving stolen copper, and we will choke off demand."

Gisby said copper wire was being stripped off rail lines in clinical, well-rehearsed operations. "It goes in a container to Hull docks, goes to China, we [inadvertently] buy it back and then it's back on the railway again." Network Rail has deployed cameras and listening devices along the most theft-blighted track sections to head off metal thieves but it cannot cover every inch of a 20,000-mile network. "This is quick, organised and mechanised stuff and over 20,000 miles it is not easy to stop."

Gisby urged tighter legislation and tougher sentences for handling stolen copper because of the damage caused to the economy by severe rail delays. "The view is 'slap on the wrist, don't do it again' even though it crucifies the railway. It is hard to get across to magistrates that the consequences of this crime are not just £200 worth of copper."

Network Rail has seen the copper theft phenomenon spread from former mining areas in the north-east and Nottinghamshire to London, with commuters on South West Trains and the Stansted Express services among those suffering severe disruption.