THIEVES have stolen railway cables almost five times a week in North and West Yorkshire since last April – causing massive disruption to passengers.

Now rewards of up to £1,000 are to be offered by Network Rail in a bid to catch and convict the criminals.

And a special depot has been created, housing staff who can swiftly get to the scene of cable thefts to repair the damage as quickly as possible.

A company spokeswoman said today that the thefts of the valuable copper cabling had continued up until the end of 2008, despite recent falls in the price of scrap metals.

She said the loss of the cable caused hold-ups for passengers, often for several hours.

“As soon as a cable is cut, trains are brought to a halt,” said a spokeswoman. “This protects the safety of passengers and rail staff, but results in delays and disruptions.”

The Press reported last autumn how commuters were hit by cancellations and delays two times in a week because of the theft of hundreds of metres of cables from a line between York and Leeds.

Five services between Selby and Leeds had to be cancelled, while passengers on Cross Country and TransPennine Express trains also found their journeys being delayed as the knock-on effect of the problems was felt throughout the region.

The Network Rail spokeswoman said today it would be launching the new reward campaign to tackle the problem, in conjunction with the charity Crimestoppers.

Network Rail had signed a year-long deal with Crimestoppers to highlight the disruption caused by selfish thieves – and also the danger in which they were placing themselves. “The rail industry is united behind the campaign and is asking for anyone with information about these crimes to come forward,” she said.

The mini-depot at Milford had been built specifically to minimise the impact of thefts on passengers. It would house crews ready to go out at a moment’s notice to replace missing cable.