London commuters delayed by second day of cable theft
Cable thieves caused disruption for London commuters for the second successive day - this time hitting the Tube's Northern line.
Services suffered severe delays after the thieves ripped out cables during the night in the High Barnet area.
There are fears the cable gangs are back in action again following a major high-profile crackdown by the British Transport Police (BTP) and government agencies.
Mainline services into Liverpool Street suffered severe disruption yesterday following the theft of 100 metres of overhead 25,000 volt cable at Broxbourne, Herts.
Tube engineers were quickly on scene and later restored Northern line service.
Latest BTP figures showed a near seven-fold increase on the Tube and a three-and-a-half-fold rise across the rail network of cable thefts and related incidents during the last five years.
Fuelled by ever increasing prices of copper and other metals, police and rail chiefs warn of escalating thefts saying it's "undoubtedly the number one crime issue for the railways..."
Network Rail (NR) reported 1,000 individual "attacks" on the railways last year - a 52 per cent increase over the last three years.
Thousands more mainline rail users suffered delays today due to a signal failure in the London Bridge and Waterloo East area during the height of the morning peak.
This affected all Southeastern routes to and from Charing Cross station.
First Capital Connect/Thameslink services through London were also delayed.
Greater Anglia services from Liverpool Street station suffered delays due to a broken down train at Romford.
(Evening Standard)
