Money for old cable part two

More cable theft discovered this morning between LOU and DEB, trains were running through but at reduced speeds while BTP went about investigating and the repair crew were hard at work trying to get things back to normal for the morning peak. A government report last November estimated that cable theft could have cost LUL up to £4m a year and though it is still not as frequent as on the mainline it does appear to be on the increase.

One interesting suggestion was the installation of 12000 CCTV cameras across the 140-odd miles of track that are above ground though as most cable thefts happen after dark they’d need to have some sort of night vision and you’d need somebody actually watching them for signs of scallywaggery.

I can’t see that ever happening as I somehow suspect that it would cost a lot more than £4m a year to buy the equipment, maintain it and employ all the staff needed to sit staring at the screens all night making it cheaper to let the nocturnal scavengers carry on nicking stuff and suffer the subsequent disruption.