On Jun 23, 7:45*pm, CJB wrote:
On Jun 23, 7:05*pm, SB wrote:

Trains cancelled to Worcester. Trains cancelled to Wales and West
Country. Trains cancelled to Oxford and Bourne End and also to Henley.
All other trains subject to huge delays. Reason = 'signalling
problems' in the West Drayton area from last night = 'vandalism' in
the Iver area = Pikeys cut the signal cables to burn off the plastic
and sell the copper. SB

Got this email from FGW CS:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Due to the theft of signalling cable at West Drayton, an extremely
limited train service is able to operate between London Paddington and
Reading.

Network Rail?s Engineering Team are working as hard as possible to
resolve this issue, but due to the amount of cable removed, disruption
is likely to continue until 2200 this evening.

If you are planning on travelling today, we strongly advise that you
checkwww.firstgreatwestern.co.ukfor further information.

Whilst we will make every effort to operate the advertised train
service, we do strongly recommend that you leave extra time for your
journey.

We apologise for any potential disruption to your journey.

First Great Westernwww.firstgreatwestern.co.uk

As an aside there are quite a few scrap metal yards bordering the
railway and canal in the West Drayton / Iver area. Frequently there is
a pall of acrid black smoke permeating the air from there which drfits
right over to Heathrow and Harlington and Southall. This black smoke
stinks of burnt plastic obviously from burning cables. At the weekends
there are no Council inspectors around, so this largely goes
unreported. But it is highly illegal as is the theft of the cable in
the first place. CJB.