YET again last week East Lancashire’s rail services were thrown into chaos because of thieves trying to rip out copper cables that control the signalling system.

This time the disruption was in Darwen but led to the cancellation of 13 trains running between Clitheroe and Manchester via Blackburn and others being delayed.

We also had the train company going back to what they call a ‘pilot working’ system.

They say this means someone travelling as a ‘human signal to ensure no other train uses the section of track.’ That sounds rather alarming like relying on a lookout to avoid trains running into each other!

But what’s even more alarming, and infuriating, is that this was one of numerous successful and unsuccessful attempts to strip metal from the railways in the area over the past couple of years.

The puzzling thing is how in our sophisticated technological world criminals with cutting equipment can keep on stealing in this way without getting caught.

We can electronically pinpoint where someone is standing when they make a mobile phone call, trace home computers perverts have used to view images of children being abused and produce robot planes with rockets which can seek and ‘take out’ a wanted terrorist hundreds of miles away.

Yet we seem powerless to stop rogues from pulling up alongside railway lines with trucks or large vans and ripping out metres and metres of thick copper cable which they then cart away and sell for cash.

It is understandable that even though we have more CCTV surveillance than any other country in the world it would be too expensive to put cameras on every railway line in the country – and monitor them.

But why is it impossible to regulate the scrap dealers who must know that the scruffy individuals who turn up to weigh in huge quantities of cable made from this precious metal haven’t just been replacing the odd bit of plumbing or rewiring their homes!

Businesses buying this stuff are crooked and if they didn’t buy stolen metal no on would take it.

What we need is for police to focus on apprehending the criminal sellers and buyers with the same zeal they are showing towards catching cannabis farmers.

And let’s have politicians bring in a licensing scheme so proven dodgy dealers are banned from doing business at all.