OHLE cable theft on the increase; railways seek help from EU

CIE

Sometimes carrying all the power in a locomotive is a good idea, perhaps. Either way, giving in to the thieves is not the way, but centralising the response is also not the way.

EurActiv

European railway operators are pressing for an EU-wide response to the rising number of cable thefts, with desperate rail companies deploying helicopter patrols and sprinkling infrastructure with artificial DNA to deter crime.

Authorities at Infrabel, the Belgian rail infrastructure company, cite the theft of copper cables that convey electric current to locomotives as a frequent cause of delays on its regional and international lines, while NetworkRail in Britain says metal thieves cost the infrastructure company £19 million, or €23.7 million, per year. ...

Rising copper and metals prices have spurred the illicit market. The World Bank’s commodity forecast shows copper prices rose from $1,813 per metric tonne in 2000 to $8,828 in 2011.

Although there is no evidence that Europe’s economic slowdown has driven the trade, “there is the coincidence of rising copper prices and unemployment levels at a time of growing criminal activity,” Straker said by telephone from Sheffield, England. ...

gobnaitolunacy

CIE wrote: »

Sometimes carrying all the power in a locomotive is a good idea, perhaps.

EurActiv

Except when the signalling cables are swiped.

CIE

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Except when the signalling cables are swiped.

They haven't sent that to satellite yet, eh? And have they forgotten how to run trains in unsignalled territory? because there used to be rules for that kind of stuff. Ah well; the ETRS will save us, of course.

This bit is still a big problemo, of course.

Authorities at Infrabel, the Belgian rail infrastructure company, cite the theft of copper cables that convey electric current to locomotives as a frequent cause of delays on its regional and international lines

dermo88

Maybe there is something to be said for 3rd rail power, even though its a horribly slow and outdated system for use over long distances.

murphaph

Cable thefts on the Berlin S Bahn (third rail, but the third rail has its own supply cables! and of course signalling requires cables too)have caused me problems as well (at least twice). I always hope that the "people" that do it are given a Darwin Award for their efforts some day.

Victor

dermo88 wrote: »

Maybe there is something to be said for 3rd rail power, even though its a horribly slow and outdated system for use over long distances.

More metal to steal!

dardhal

Copper theft in all their forms is commonplace in Spain, for example, and is unfortunately not limited to bigger strands or loads or cable, such as those found in railways, trams and underground/tubes. Copper cable theft if everyday business in lots of council and trunk roads, leaving hundreds of meters of roads at dark at once. They also take away huge loads from public streets lighting. But they even cause damages in the thousands of euros to get only a couple of kilos worth of copper, by brutally taking away whole electrical systems from garages, farms and business areas. Most of the time they cause more harm than profit they can get, by orders of magnitude.

It may not be easy to find those "traders" at work, but it is pretty easy to find their "products" in scrapyards or in the places where they usually separate copper from plastic and other materials (they do that in the open, every time you see some dark fire smoke around some areas, you know for sure what is going on).

However, authorities and local laws do a terrible job at keeping those people behind bars. Most of them have been arrested tens of times, and a great majority belong to a couple of very specific ethnic groups I won't mention. Those who are foreigners would never think about doing anything like that again faced with the possibility of being sent to prison in their own home countries.

Copper theft is not about economic downturn, recession or depression, is about organized crime and those among us that live beyond the law in countries where there is no longer anything resembling justice.

dermo88

dardhal

a great majority belong to a couple of very specific ethnic groups I won't mention

I only wish I could be so...hehe....diplomatic. Do you want a nice piece of carpet for your DMU boss? Because you won't be able to use an EMU......

Of course, the moderator other than Victor would have me kicked out in a heartbeat if I engaged in any form of reality (he'd call it hate) speech.

dowlingm

there's ongoing work on reducing the attractiveness of railway infrastructure to thieves. For example: Redesigned signalling power supply cuts copper costs

CIE

dermo88 wrote: »

Maybe there is something to be said for 3rd rail power, even though its a horribly slow and outdated system for use over long distances.

Not very good for high-speed running; contact problems above 100 mph, IINM. You've also got large gaps at level crossings and sophisticated points; some of the first third rail systems were operated with locomotives, and with points at least they could make do with overhead third rail contacted with mini-pantographs (Grand Central Station in NYC used to have this before they retired the electric engines in favour of dual-mode diesels), but at level crossings, if the engine didn't have battery power, the only hope was to coast through the crossing. For urban underground systems where you want to minimise overhead height, it's ideal though, even when you need to have substations every two miles or so; operating costs are still low enough.

murphaph wrote: »

Cable thefts on the Berlin S Bahn (third rail, but the third rail has its own supply cables! and of course signalling requires cables too)have caused me problems as well (at least twice). I always hope that the "people" that do it are given a Darwin Award for their efforts some day.

Darwin Awards are usually not valid for railway incidents due to high frequency of occurrence. They have to be really unique to merit one.

A Dub in Glasgo

The thread title is misleading as it is power cables for lineside housings, signalling and telecoms cables that are mainly being stolen across Europe. I cannot think of an incident where thieves stole the OHLE cable in Britain as an example


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