Campaign to catch cable thieves

Thieves targeted cables on railways across Yorkshire almost 300 times between April and December last year.

Network Rail figures show the thefts caused delays amounting to 125,539 minutes in North, West and South Yorkshire - equivalent to 87 days.

The railway industry and police are teaming up to highlight the dangers and disruption caused by the thefts.

Crimestoppers is offering £1,000 to help catch thieves as part of the campaign which is launched later.

Over the nine-month period, the figures show there were 149 thefts in West and North Yorkshire and the same figure for South Yorkshire.

David Pape, route director for Network Rail, said: "Despite the falling price of scrap metal and additional security measures in place, the theft of cables used in signalling systems on the railway remains a major source of delay to passengers and cost to the industry."