Is cable theft as big a fear as terrorism among rail commuters?

A local radio station which I listen to often advertises a local scrap metal merchant, an industrial sector which has been booming due to rising in metal prices in China.

It is this boom which has in the last 2 years been responsible for most delays affecting Greater Manchester’s rail network. My first experience was one in November 2006 which affected the Manchester North signalling area for 2 weeks.

Luckily, this has also coincided with me catching the bus to work more, which thanks to reduced traffic on Ashton Old Road has become a better option for me than getting the train.

As well as being a major economic crime, cable theft causes great misery to its commuters.  These include extended journey times as well as cancellations, greater anxiety amongst commuters trying to get to work on time and greater reliance on private road transport.

Last week, this happened to me at Stalybridge, and the same has happened to some of my fellow travellers a week on (this time at Bolton).  At this time of writing, today’s incident at Bolton has just been cleared an hour ago.

In Greater Manchester, this seems to be the biggest contributor for rail delays.  In June alone, there has been 21 hours and 44 minutes worth of delays.  Thankfully, justice is being done with one person jailed for 3 years, causing 143 trains to be delayed – including the judge’s usual rail service.

For maximum disruption, stealing 50 yards of cable to delay several trains just to raise some beer money seems to be the answer.  However, this disruption, in my honest opinion is just as damaging to public security as well as our need to increase rail patronage.

Send them down!

S.V., 02 September 2008.