On Monday morning, train traffic is severely disrupted due to the theft of 700 metres of copper cable on the railway line between Mechelen and Vilvoorde, announced the infrastructure manager of the Belgian railways Infrabel.
Belgian railway company SNCB announced that "important delays and cancellations are to be expected," particularly between Brussels and Antwerp. Certain trains are partially or completely cancelled, and those that do run are delayed by at least five to ten minutes.
"It involves a theft along line 27, the railway line between Mechelen and Vilvoorde," Infrabel spokesperson Thomas Baeken told VRT. "We will naturally report the theft but without witnesses or a clear trail, it is often difficult to catch the perpetrators and recover damages from them."
The theft was detected overnight between 01:00 and 02:00. Infrabel workers are on site to repair the damage but that work would take at least until noon, Infrabel said.
Since 2013, Belgium has a national action plan in cooperation with ironmongers, who know which cables come from the track, so people can no longer offer them for sale.
"Additionally, they require all payments to be made electronically, so there is always a trace. Still, cable thieves can always go abroad, making it a lot more difficult to track them down."
Wherever possible, Infrabel is trying to replace copper with aluminium, which is less in demand. It is also burying cables as much as possible, but that also makes it more difficult for the maintenance teams.
