Theft causes severe rail delays

Rail passengers faced severe delays on Saturday after thieves stole copper wire on one of the UK's major routes.

The wire was stolen near Newark, Nottinghamshire, causing delays for about five hours on the East Coast mainline from Scotland to London.

Craig Bowman of Network Rail said the signalling failure caused by the theft had been resolved.

"There were delays and cancellations as a result of the theft but things are getting back to normal," he said.

British Transport Police is investigating the theft.

Manual signalling

A spokesman for train operator National Express said: "Up to 12 services have been delayed as a result with average delay times of around 60 minutes."

The number of trains using the stretch of line on the East Coast mainline was reduced from six to two, the Network Rail spokesman said.

"Sadly this sort of theft has become a common occurrence over the past couple of years," he said.

Rail staff had to manually signal trains through the affected stretch of track between Grantham in Lincolnshire and Newark North Gate.

Mr Bowman said: "Thieves broke on to the line at Claypole this morning at 5.35am stealing cable, causing all the signals between Grantham and Newark to turn to red, their fail-safe position."