Man charged over rail track theft

Man charged over rail track theft

Tha track was taken from a disused line near Sunderland

A man has been charged after two miles of railway line was allegedly stolen on Wearside.

Police said diggers and cutting tools were used to tear up the track, valued at about £250,000, on a stretch of the disused Leamside line, near Sunderland.

Most of the 313 tons of track has been recovered.

A 50-year-old man from the Doncaster area has been charged with conspiracy to steal.

Each piece of stolen track weighed about 1,000 kilograms.

Police said specialist engineering equipment, including JCB diggers and cutting tools, were found at abandoned near the rail line.

The line has not carried passengers since 1964, but there have been calls recently to reopen it.