"Signalling Problems" and cable thefts, time for a new approach?

[BestWestern]

Surely the most practical immediate option is simply to get each section of line overhauled and up together - check all existing cables and replace as needed (with fibre optic!), so that everything should work for the next few years and not need touching - then set the cabling trough in concrete and bury it under half a ton of ballast. Even the most determined pikey scumbag would need a lot of blokes with a lot of gear and a lot of time to nick enough of the stuff to make it worth their effort!

There's no doubt that taking the heaviest possible action against bent scrap merchants needs to be an integral part of the approach, but it will always be reactive rather than proactive, as the resources to routinely monitor thousands of yards just doesn't exist. But regulation to routinely close down any yard found to be handling stolen railway cables, and prohibit the owners from any involvement in operating any type of business for 5 or 10 years, might have some effect. Yes it's draconian, but it's quite possibly the only punishment severe enough to focus the minds of these people. Scrappies should have no problems making a decent living out of legitimate scrap at the current values, buying bent cable is just a bonus, and one probably not worth risking a profitable business for.

 

[IanXC]

I think theres probably more searching of scrap yards going on than has been discussed on the last few posts. Have a watch of the crimewatch episode I posted earlier.

Seems its a case of choosing the yard using intelligence received and then searching it top to bottom. Remember theres BT and National Grid there too, as part of the team, I'm guessing they stump up some cash to BTP too.

 

[Smudger105e]

Article from the Guardian

The Guardian - Network Rail losing millions from copper thefts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/06/theft-of-copper-costs-network-rail-millions-of-pounds

The theft of copper cables from Britain's railways is reaching epidemic proportions, costing the operator Network Rail millions of pounds as it takes on extra staff to catch the criminals and pays out compensation to train companies for delays on the system.

Copper theft from railway lines jumped by 67% to 3,116 incidents in the year to April as metal prices have soared and Britain's stumbling recovery from recession has continued to push impoverished groups into crime, according to the British Transport Police.

But Network Rail maintenance staff working in the worst-hit areas – which are centred around the former steel city of Sheffield – say the number of incidents has jumped even higher in the past three weeks, prompting the company to introduce a new night shift for beleaguered staff.

Steve White, the Network Rail engineer in charge of signalling and telecommunications in the Sheffield area, said: "In the past few weeks it has definitely got worse. Around here, it went from being a minor occurrence to around two or three incidents a week in 2009 and now it's got to 10 or 12 incidents a week."

His Blast Lane depot, situated in the city's former industrial heartland, introduced a new 10pm to 6am shift three weeks ago because cable theft had become so rife that staff were being called up to eight times a night, White said. Most Network Rail depots around the country have introduced some form of "24/7" cover.

"It's pretty soul-destroying because fixing theft damage is becoming my new day job, so we have much less time to deal with routine faults. And it can only get worse. If someone is desperate and determined they will find a way," said White. "Copper is likely to keep rising and the austerity measures aren't helping."

Most of the thefts are carried out by casual criminals, stealing small amounts of copper and selling it on to scrap metal dealers to fund drug or alcohol habits, according to the British Transport Police.

"The knock-on effect of these thefts across the network is huge. Everybody is affected, right down to the human resources department, which has to deal with increased levels of stress," White said.

The damage is also taking a financial toll, costing Network Rail £43m in compensation and repair charges in the past three years, as thousands of incidents led to nearly 1m minutes of delays.

One incident on 15 April, near the Nottinghamshire town of Newark, cost Network Rail £620,758 in compensation payments to train and freight operators, after a cut to a line-side cable forced 34 cancellations and 8,074 minutes of delays.

Economic hardship has been blamed for the rise in thefts but the soaring price of copper has made it more lucrative. Copper has tripled to about $9,000 (£5,486) a tonne in under three years as fast-growing emerging markets such as China demand more of the metal, which is used in wiring, to feed its construction boom.

The price is also being driven up by financial speculators, who have poured tens of billions of dollars into metals as an investment, in the hope of making a quick profit.

The number of copper thefts is closely aligned to the price of the metal, meaning that an increase in speculation by pension funds and other investors at one end is likely to filter through to an increase in train service disruptions at the other.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It's quite incredible the risks some of them will go to. Just spotted this on the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-13678266

OK, so the chap wasn't on the railways, but still... 21kV cable, and we've already established that OHLE isn't immune from being nicked.

Someone has already posted a thread on the General Discussion forum about this under thread name "This cable thief paid the price".
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I believe technologies like Smartwater are getting more and more common these days. So, whilst one bit of black sheathed cable might look like any other, if the police decide to pop round to see what the local scrap merchant has been buying, they're more likely to be able to tell that a bit of cable has come from the railways.

I have seen comment from the Police stating that the high temperatures of the fires used to burn off the outer sheathings totally destroy the Smartwater application to the exterior of the outer cable sheath.

 

[moggie]

The ONLY way to stop this is to force mandatory licensing regulation AND the cost of administering the associated cost on ALL scrap dealers. No cash transactions, proof of ownership or disposal rights to be shown and recorded. Threat of closedown if the scrap dealer is found with unregistered items in their yard. Exemptions can be made for certain defined scrap items. This is the common point in the problem affecting many industries and organisations.

Fibre Optic is incompatible with the majority of signalling circuits - being primarily used for trunk data transmission point to point rather than multiple drop off points for conventional signalling applications or HV / LV power to lineside equipment. To replace existing function 'transmission' circuits would take multiple millions of pounds and decades of work, much of which I suspect would be economically unviable. It also ignores the same problem in non-rail applications which also get hit.

New signalling schemes significantly reduce the amount of lineside cabling and much of it now contains little in the way of copper but cabling for equipment power supply is still required. As has been said if it's long and black and looks like a cable they'll attempt to have it away anyway.

Some serious action by the courts would also help but let's face it the current government are sending out some very confused signals (no pun intended) at present.