Nexus, which owns, manages and is modernising Metro, has acted to reassure Metro users it is doing all it can to combat the problem of cable theft and has apologised for the delays it caused.
Nexus engineers worked across the weekend and in the early hours of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to repair damaged cables following a series of thefts and attempted thefts.
Nexus has set up a taskforce to create and deliver and action plan to tackle cable theft on the Metro system.
And Nexus is working closely with police to identify hotspots for cable theft and then increase patrols in the area. It also uses its own staff and security companies to increase the human presence along sections of track where modernisation work is taking place.
At the weekend there were increased patrols including rail vehicles going back and forth on the stretches of line where passenger trains were not running. Engineers worked for hours at a time repairing damage and also operating track points and signals manually to keep trains running.
Trackside equipment is already marked with an invisible forensic coding system called SmartWater. The solution is virtually impossible to remove and is invisible to the naked eye but fluoresces under ultraviolet (UV) light. The forensic signature it contains can be used by the police to link property to its owners and criminals to the crime scene.
Nexus is also devising community campaigns aimed at educating young people about the huge danger of tampering with railway cables, and the disruption cable theft causes.
Ken Mackay, Director of Rail and Infrastructure for Nexus, said: "We have seen a significant number of cable thefts and attempts to steal cable from our network over the last four days.
This has caused disruption to Metro services, especially over the weekend just gone, and I’d like to apologise for that and thank passengers for their patience.
In the most recent incidents we have actually been able to repair damage before it caused significant disruption to our passengers, but sadly in some cases this is not possible and I am sorry for the inconvenience and can promise passengers we are doing all we can to combat this problem.”
He added: The theft of metal is a problem for the whole community, and there are few people it has not affected in some way over the last few years.
On Metro it is particularly noticeable because it can bring sections of the system to a halt while power supplies and signal systems are repaired. Thieves often do a lot of damage trying to rip cables out, and this then means it takes a lot longer to get things back to normal.
We are far from being alone in having to deal with this issue and we work closely with the police and Network Rail to look at ways to reduce the impact on our services and on local people.”
Crimestoppers has got together with Network Rail to offer a £1,000 reward for information which leads to the prosecution of people responsible for cable theft or damage. Network Rail estimates that the problem caused 6,000 hours of train delays nationally.