Cable theft at Bolton 28 December 2024

[Taunton]

Reported power cable worth £100k stolen at Bolton one week before energisation:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...1&cvid=de247afdb2d04cbeb527af7e377d9b6e&ei=39

Christian Irwin, Network Rail's capital delivery director, said: "I am very sorry to passengers who will be impacted by the rail closure.

"It is extremely frustrating for this crime to take place so close to the energisation of the line

Presumably it is on the Bolton to Wigan project. Notably exactly the same happened on the DLR extension to Stratford International immediately before energisation some years ago, where I believe it was stolen twice; taken once, replaced, and stolen again, significantly delaying the opening. I am guessing there is some underworld information on what is being installed and when it is going live, for high voltage power cable when energised is normally fairly self-preserving.

 

[800001]

Reported power cable worth £100k stolen at Bolton one week before energisation:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...1&cvid=de247afdb2d04cbeb527af7e377d9b6e&ei=39

Presumably it is on the Bolton to Wigan project. Notably exactly the same happened on the DLR extension to Stratford International immediately before energisation some years ago, where I believe it was stolen twice; taken once, replaced, and stolen again, significantly delaying the opening. I am guessing there is some underworld information on what is being installed and when it is going live, for high voltage power cable when energised is normally fairly self-preserving.

That’s takes some planning and equipment to nick cable which had been attached to the masts!

Headline states to expect disruption, surely they just continue with diesel trains as used now?

Edit - after reading the article i don’t think it’s actual OHL but a cable that provides power to the OHL.

 

[Trackman]

Edit - after reading the article i don’t think it’s actual OHL but a cable that provides power to the OHL.

It is according to the 'man in the pub'.
But still you must be daft/stupid/no fear of death to attempt it, energized or not.

 

[800001]

It is according to the 'man in the pub'.
But still you must be daft/stupid/no fear of death to attempt it, energized or not.

I’d love to say what I think about the sort of person who does this, but people will take offence!


But seriously, these people must be incredibly stupid to do such a thing, I wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing, an electric shock of a plug at home nearly made me cry, let alone the potential for 25,000 volts!

 

[HSTEd]

Are the feeder cables for these sorts of installations copper or aluminium?

On the other hand.... might be worth talking about going back to AWAC conductor wire.....

 

[Mogster]

This has the whiff of insider information. Wouldn’t moving £100k of cable take some reasonable logistics? It’s not an opportunistic theft is it?

Significant cable theft means Sunday disruption for passengers between Preston and Bolton

Emergency work is needed to re-install and test high-voltage power cable that was stolen by thieves ahead of a major project milestone.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

Emergency work is needed to re-install and test high-voltage power cable that was stolen by thieves ahead of a major project milestone.

Engineers discovered £100k worth of cable missing when they arrived to carry out work in Lostock, Bolton, over the Christmas period.

Since 2022, Network Rail has been working to electrify the line between Wigan and Bolton. This £100 million upgrade will get the track ready for Northern’s longer, greener, electric trains when they are introduced along the route.

The cable that was stolen provides power to the overhead line equipment, which in turn powers electric trains across the tracks.

The crime was carried out just one week before the line was due to be energised for the first time, on New Year's Day.

So the team can meet this important milestone, they need to replace the damaged cable and retest the system. To complete this work safely and efficiently, the railway needs to be closed for the majority of this Sunday (29 December 2025) between Chorley and Bolton, which will affect services up to Preston.

Passengers should check the National Rail website or with their train operator to find out what the closure means for their specific journey.

Christian Irwin OBE, Network Rail’s Capital Delivery director, said: “I am very sorry to passengers who will be impacted by the rail closure between Chorley and Bolton on Sunday.
“It is extremely frustrating for this crime to take place so close to the energisation of the line. Our teams have been working very hard to deliver this upgrade for passengers over several years including over this Christmas period.
“We are working closely with the British Transport Police to provide additional security measures and to find and prosecute those accountable."

The power on the line between Wigan and Bolton will soon be turned on as part of the next phase in the electrification project.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Headline states to expect disruption, surely they just continue with diesel trains as used now?

It seems to indicate that they'll need a possession to repair it, which I beleive was taken today (but Northern don't like running trains on Sunday anyway so nothing was lost)

 

[YorkshireBear]

This has the whiff of insider information. Wouldn’t moving £100k of cable take some reasonable logistics? It’s not an opportunistic theft is it?

Significant cable theft means Sunday disruption for passengers between Preston and Bolton

Emergency work is needed to re-install and test high-voltage power cable that was stolen by thieves ahead of a major project milestone.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

Almost all of them have insider information Network Rail suspect as they are just too well planned.

 

[dcbwhaley]

It is according to the 'man in the pub'.
But still you must be daft/stupid/no fear of death to attempt it, energized or not.

Ground it first with an insulated tool to trip the breaker then cut it.
And hope that the breaker doesn't auto-reclose when the fault is removed

 

[Harpo]

Despite the extra legislation applied to scrap metal operations, there are clearly ways and means available to metal thieves. The theft of 20+ iron drain covers on a local road showed us that earlier this year.

 

[dk1]

Why does metal theft seem to happen a lot more in the midlands & north of England? Don’t seem to hear so much of an issue elsewhere in the UK.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Why does metal theft seem to happen a lot more in the midlands & north of England? Don’t seem to hear so much of an issue elsewhere in the UK.

Plenty of metal-bashers in the vicinity, I expect.
I'm surprised NR has £100K's worth of replacement cable at such short notice.
The supply chain must be part of the whodunnit trail, you would think (more likely than NR really).

 

[Oxfordblues]

If scrap metal is so valuable why are so many lengths of surplus rails left at the lineside all over the network?

 

[Towers]

If scrap metal is so valuable why are so many lengths of surplus rails left at the lineside all over the network?

The general concensus is that the cost of collecting it would generally outweigh the value, considering the complexities of organising recovery on today’s railway.

 

[Magicake]

Well some of them are strategic spares of course, not scrap.

Then there is the cost of removing the rails to take into account - not much of an issue for a thief in a transit van.

Finally scrap rail is not made of copper

 

[Towers]

I’d love to say what I think about the sort of person who does this, but people will take offence!


But seriously, these people must be incredibly stupid to do such a thing, I wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing, an electric shock of a plug at home nearly made me cry, let alone the potential for 25,000 volts!

They’ll have known it wasn’t live if, as stated already, it was done with the assistance of insider info. That may even involve those “insiders” being present, for things like allowing access and indeed ensuring that the supply is off. They could even be the thieves, who knows.

 

[800001]

Despite the extra legislation applied to scrap metal operations, there are clearly ways and means available to metal thieves. The theft of 20+ iron drain covers on a local road showed us that earlier this year.

Entirely agree, last year 3-4 nights in a row near Newark signalling cable was being pinched, (vans parked up on A1 overhead), one night as the engineers were fixing the theft, they could see lights in the distance and it was the thieves pinching another section!

 

[Towers]

Entirely agree, last year 3-4 nights in a row near Newark signalling cable was being pinched, (vans parked up on A1 overhead), one night as the engineers were fixing the theft, they could see lights in the distance and it was the thieves pinching another section!

That rather sounds like a monumental failure of NR and the authorities to catch the perpetrators! Open goal or what…

 

[fgwrich]

Almost all of them have insider information Network Rail suspect as they are just too well planned.

Yes indeed, although I have seen many a cable or tool theft at an NR site where Network Rail may as well just have an open door - the term security sadly not meaning as much as a chocolate fire guard.

You will also have a lot of contractors on jobs like these, and it’s not uncommon for equipment to just go missing from worksites either - GWEP suffered from this too.

 

[GraphitProjekt]

By the sounds of it, we should also be interrogating network rail staff if insider info is such a common feature of these crimes.

As previously said, £100k worth sounds like the work of professional thieves not just the local poor people you don't like

 

[AverageJoe]

By the sounds of it, we should also be interrogating network rail staff if insider info is such a common feature of these crimes.

As previously said, £100k worth sounds like the work of professional thieves not just the local poor people you don't like

interrogate is probably a bit strong but certainly would need to interview staff, check cctv is available and follow up any evidence found.

 

[800001]

That rather sounds like a monumental failure of NR and the authorities to catch the perpetrators! Open goal or what…

What do you do? Have police out each night watching?

 

[skyhigh]

By the sounds of it, we should also be interrogating network rail staff if insider info is such a common feature of these crimes.

There will be hundreds, if not thousands, of Network Rail staff and contractors who have access to such information. Add in all the TOC staff who also need to know (such as planning, operational staff) so 'interrogating' them all to find out who is sharing information would be a mammoth task.

 

[43066]

Why does metal theft seem to happen a lot more in the midlands & north of England? Don’t seem to hear so much of an issue elsewhere in the UK.

I’ve noticed that. Possibly more rural, sparsely populated areas where they’re less kindly to be caught on CCTV etc.?

 

[ThirteenArches]

It's disgusting that this crime has stirred up a load of ignorant bigoted nasties. Years ago, after a work colleague made similar remarks after a metal theft, the thief turned out to be a close neighbour of his. Inside jobs are common. One firm I worked for took a delivery of £25000 worth of cutting- edge smart phones. Mysteriously, burglars struck that night. On another occasion (this was an asset tracking firm), the online tracking was turned off for a software upgrade. This took half an hour less than expected, but when tracking came back on, one very expensive item of plant was found to be 60 miles away from where it should have been, and just about to be loaded on a ship. Honest, it wasn't me, if I could do that I'd be rich.

I'm surprised though that in these days of the white heat of technology (to quote), they don't add a facility that could detect in real time not only the fact of cable interference, but it's location within a few metres. Time domain reflectometry should be a good starting point.

 

[Geeves]

To be fair to who ever people are blaming, hilariously many people believe its Northern Rail themselves who took the cable as an excuse to the terrible service! Conspiracy deepens

 

[GraphitProjekt]

Arguably the information on these forums could be enough to inform this crime

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Dec 2024 ==

It's disgusting that this crime has stirred up a load of ignorant bigoted nasties. Years ago, after a work colleague made similar remarks after a metal theft, the thief turned out to be a close neighbour of his. Inside jobs are common.

well said

 

[Bullfield WEst]

They’ll have known it wasn’t live if, as stated already, it was done with the assistance of insider info. That may even involve those “insiders” being present, for things like allowing access and indeed ensuring that the supply is off. They could even be the thieves, who knows.

Network Rail has recently been advertising on social media that the wires would be going live at midnight on Jan 1st. Not surprised a "window of opportunity" has been welcomed by the thieves.

 

[Cowley]

Please don’t accuse any particular group of people of being involved with this theft.

None of us know who did this at the moment and I’d rather things stayed on topic than have to spend time deleting inappropriate content again.

Thanks

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Was the actual theft location nearer to Lostock, rather than Bolton? What lines are affected? Is it just Bolton to Preston via Lostock and Chorley? (Bolton to Wigan Wallgate was meant to be bustituted today, wasn't it?)