Vandalism Caused Major Delays on Merseyrail Network

Passengers on the Merseyrail network were disrupted on Sunday 29 December following a senseless act of vandalism which caused delays and cancellations affecting hundreds of passengers.

An outage in the signalling system alerted engineers to investigate early on Sunday morning. They found that a cable had been cut in three places ready to be removed. The cable that was targeted provides the power to essential signalling equipment.

Although engineers worked quickly to identify the issue, it meant that a whole section of cable had to be replaced and tested before trains could run, resulting in hours of delay and disruption for passengers between Hunts Cross and Liverpool.

Paul Owen, Network Rail’s North West route operations director, said: “Over the festive period we have seen a spike in cable thefts and attempted thefts across the North West route. This is incredibly frustrating for us and the passengers who rely on the railway.  We are working closely with the British Transport Police to provide additional security measures and to find and prosecute those responsible."