Firm's system to deter railway metal thieves (From Worcester News)

Firm's system to deter railway metal thieves

4:40pm Wednesday 18th January 2012 in Biz By Robert Hale

SCIENTISTS and engineers in Malvern have helped develop a new sensing system which could deter metal thieves who disrupt rail services by stealing signal cables.

Technology company QinetiQ has developed a way of turning the fibre-optic cables that run alongside most railway lines into “burglar alarms” which can detect people interfering with the signal cables.

The new technology, called OptaSense, works by sending pulses of light down the fibre-optic cables, which are already in place and are used by telecoms carriers. Any noise or disturbance near the railway line causes a disturbance in the fibre-optic cable, which can be detected by a special device which forms the heart of the OptaSense technology.

Some of the special software that enables the device to do its job was created at QinetiQ in Malvern. OptaSense has already aroused a great deal of interest from oil companies, and it has already been installed to protect a pipeline in Turkey, where it has proved its worth by detecting would-be thieves.

And QinetiQ is now searching for a partner in this country to use OptaSense to protect rail companies from metal theft.

Network Rail said this month that metal theft costs the rail industry over £19 million a year, as well as causing misery and hardship for thousands of delayed travellers. QinetiQ hopes that OptaSense will create up to 1,000 jobs across the country.