The theft of a £100,000 signalling cable has caused travel chaos across much of the North West of England today.
Workers discovered the elaborate crime when they arrived in the Lostock area of Bolton, Greater Manchester, yesterday.
The expensive piece of equipment provides power to the overhead line which in turn powers the trains across the track.
This meant that Northern services that run through Bolton and Chorley, Lancashire, were grounded to a halt while urgent repair work was carried out.
The train line is a crucial transport link for the North West of England connecting west Lancashire to Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport – the UK’s third busiest airport.
Meanwhile, the Manchester Evening News reported that TransPennine Express services between Manchester and Glasgow and Edinburgh were not able to call at Bolton for much of today.
Rail bosses apologised for today’s travel disruption and vowed to ‘find and prosecute those accountable’.
Christian Irwin OBE, Network Rail’s Capital Delivery director, said: ‘I am very sorry to passengers who will be impacted by the rail closure between Chorley and Bolton on Sunday.
Workers close to the site of the theft of a £100,000 signalling cable which caused travel chaos across much of the North West of England today
A Northern train. Northern services that run through Bolton and Chorley, Lancashire, grounded to a halt while urgent repair work was carried out.
‘It is extremely frustrating for this crime to take place so close to the energisation of the line. Our teams have been working very hard to deliver this upgrade for passengers over several years including over this Christmas period.
‘We are working closely with the British Transport Police to provide additional security measures and to find and prosecute those accountable.’
Today’s disruption on the last Sunday of 2024 brings to an end a year of constant travel chaos for commuters in the North West of England who have faced persistent cancellations.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that in the three of the five worst stations for cancellations were all in Manchester.
Chronic staff shortages on Sundays have impacted Northern throughout the year leading to more, often last-minute, cancellations bringing further misery to passengers.
The severe shortages of crew members is because Sunday is a day not recognised as part of the working week under Northern Rail staff contracts
Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, chaired an emergency meeting with the train operator in October to address their poor performance.
In the meeting, Mr Burnham was left baffled to discover Northern still uses a fax machine to communicate and they claimed they cannot axe it because of an agreement with unions.
The affected train line is a crucial transport link for the North West of England connecting west Lancashire to Manchester Piccadilly (pictured) and Manchester Airport – the UK’s third busiest airport
Meanwhile, TransPennine Express services between Manchester and Glasgow and Edinburgh were not able to call at Bolton for much of today
Mr Burnham said it was ‘no wonder’ passengers were receiving the news of cancellations late and told the firm’s directors ‘The north needs better than an unreliable fax-driven railway’.
During the meeting, which was broadcast online, an exasperated Mr Burnham asked how it could ‘possibly be the case in 2024’ that fax machines were still being used.
‘People will ask after decades of privatisation, where has the money gone?’ he said.
‘Where has the money gone in the rail industry given that we are still using 1980s technology to communicate?’
Matt Rice, Chief Operating Officer at Northern Rail, replied: ‘It is our challenge to get rid of them – it’s in our plans to get rid of them. The tools we use to get messaging and information to our crew rely on faxes, amazingly.
‘We will get there before we are forced to because fax technology, in telecoms terms, turns off.’
Mr Rice admitted it was ‘ludicrous’ that the firm was still relying on fax machines, before Mr Burnham said the situation gave the impression of ‘a disregard to the travelling public’.
The Labour Mayor had previously called Northern a ‘part-time rail service’ over its levels of recent cancellations.
It emerged Northern Rail is still using fax machines during an emergency meeting over the company’s poor record with Mayor Andy Burnham in October (right)
A spokesperson for Northern, said: ‘We are sorry for our recent performance, accept it has not been good enough and understand the impact this has on our customers. We are working hard to address issues with train crew availability so we can improve reliability for our customers.
‘We recently secured a new rest-day working agreement for our train drivers, however an offer that was put to our conductors in the North West to secure a commitment to work on Sundays was rejected by their members in a referendum vote.
‘If it had been accepted, we believe that deal would have improved reliability in the short-term while we worked with the RMT to secure a longer-term agreement. Despite this setback, we will continue to work with colleagues and the RMT union to find a new way forward.
‘We realise there is more to be done to address issues with performance and are now focused on delivering our improvement plan.’
MailOnline have approached the British Transport Police for a comment.
