Police run 'Ghost trains' in dead of night to track down Britain's metal thieves

Undercover police units are travelling on railways in the dead of night in an attempt to catch the surging number of scrap-metal thieves red-handed.

The locomotives – dubbed ghost trains – travel with their lights dimmed and their engines muffled to allow specialist officers, equipped with infrared cameras, to catch unsuspecting criminals in the act.

The tactic is aimed at countering the metal theft crimewave that has caused chaos for rail passengers. In the past seven months alone, 1,969 trains have been cancelled because of 675 copper cable thefts across the network.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066734/Police-run-Ghost-trains-dead-night-track-Britains-metal-thieves.html

In-cab signaling could eliminate the huge problems scrap metal theft brings to the line...or takes from the line...as well as at the same time improving line speeds and safety, and bringing travel times down for passengers.

Yes it's costly, but it would establish a better system for the future.

Of course the government/DFT/NR could pay for the new system from cashing in the copper on the signals already in use!

You mean like our politicians? A bunch of feckin' crooks!!

graymac wrote:You mean like our politicians? A bunch of feckin' crooks!!

Well, it is not the politicians and I won't tell any more, don't wanna break my own forum rules.