Reward £50,000

A SABOTEUR, believed to be a railway worker with a grudge, is causing chaos on the network by setting fire to signal cables.

Network Rail is offering a £50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the arsonist, who has caused more than a thousand trains to be cancelled and delayed hundreds of thousands of passengers. The 12 attacks, which have cost Network Rail more than £20 million in repairs and compensation for delays, have been carried out within 50 miles of each other in the West Midlands.

In the latest incident, last Thursday, fire destroyed a signaling sub-station on the West Coast Main Line. Virgin cancelled 115 trains. Services between London, the North of England and Scotland are still severely delayed because all the signals on a large section of track were disabled. British Transport Police believe the saboteur has detailed knowledge of railway signaling and knows where to strike to cause maximum disruption. The attacks began in the summer of last year, with eight incidents in six weeks.

Police thought the saboteur had given up but two months ago the arsonist struck again and has made four attacks so far this autumn.

All the attacks have taken place near access gates to the track used by maintenance workers. Police are uncertain of the motive. One theory being investigated is that a former Railtrack worker, who lost his savings when the company was forced into administration, is taking revenge Network Rail, its successor.

Network Rail has written to all current and former staff in the West Midlands, appealing for information and telling them of the reward, and a squad of 25 detectives is working on what is being called Operation Dart. More than 300 people have been interviewed and security on trains has been stepped up.

Network Rail has used a helicopter with heat-seeking equipment and extra CCTV has also been installed to monitor signaling equipment. The hunt is being hampered by the saboteur’s habit of striking over a wide geographical area.

Detective Chief Inspector John Sidebottom said his team was trawling through a list of railway workers. "This is someone who has a certain amount of technical knowledge of the railway and wants to cause maximum disruption," he said. "There has been no threat to safety so far but we are concerned that it might escalate to sabotage which is life-threatening."

Robin Gisby, Network Rail operations director, said that several signals had been blacked out by the attacks but insisted that there had been no danger of a collision. When the system detects a break in the circuit, the previous signal automatically turns to red.

Mr Gisby said the arsonist had caused more disruption than the station closures after the July 7 bomb attacks.

He added: "We often get vandalism but what makes this so different is the way the attacks have been targeted over a such a sustained period. We are struggling to understand the motive because we have received no threats or demands."