Summer Madness The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track

This programme contains strong language.

Britain's railway...

..the oldest and one of the busiest in the world.

Slow down! Slow down!

Surely this is illegal to be packed in like this.

A huge network under constant pressure.

Absolutely mental today.

-No driver?

-Come on, guys, look for the driver and guard.

Where anything and everything...

Start tamping it, son!

..can mean delay and chaos for thousands.

-Backs against the wall.

-He's got a suicidal female on board.

Train now 90 late, owing to hitting a pheasant. I've heard everything now.

Filmed over a year across the nation...

-That one? Cheers.

-There's a seat next to the banana!

..we go behind the scenes of an industry we all love to complain about.

-Do you want a hand?

-So, all-in-all, that's £323.50.

Oi!

With the railway people determined to keep Britain moving.

To infinity and beyond!

Into battle.

MAN HUMS

Ah, look at that little baby!

They say if you want to see life, you've got to be working here.

You see hen parties, stag dos. You see quite a lot from this point.

-You see domestics happening.

-Do you?

-Oh, yeah!

Oh, yeah! Not half!

Rugby fans fighting, football fans fighting, you see 'em.

All I need is some popcorn and, you know, a drink! I'll be all right!

Best seat in the house.

Leeds, one of the busiest stations outside London.

100,000 people travel through here every day,

commuting in from towns across Yorkshire

and onwards to all corners of the country.

'This is an announcement for passengers travelling to Guiseley,

'Menston, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Skipton, Gargrave,

'Hellifield, Ilkley. Can these passengers please make their way to Platform 3?'

Summer has arrived and the afternoon rush hour is in full swing.

Every walk of British life is here...

Thank you. Mwah!

..helped through the ticket barriers by Imran.

-Is your ticket not working?

-It is, but I'm in a rush.

Right, everyone's in a rush!

-Is it not working?

-I told you, it doesn't work!! I come through every day.

-Can you use your ticket, please?

-Come on, I need to go!

-What's this shift like?

-It's all right. Not too bad. I get to see my dad!

Got to keep an eye on him! I can do it from here.

Hanif is one of the longest-serving staff here at Leeds.

He's worked on this customer information point for the past 26 years.

You're just about to miss one. Sorry about that.

Imran followed his dad on to the railways, joining at just 18.

-What's that?

-Did you say your grandfather worked on the railways?

Yeah, Grandfather worked in the depot. He was a cleaner.

-Dad!

-Yeah.

-What did your dada do?

-Worked in Kenya. Railway.

-Railway?

-Yeah.

I didn't know that!

Four, four generations.

Then I've got me two brothers that work here.

Elias, Idris.

Er, then Uncle Khalifa.

You could say that... railway family.

Yeah, we were born into it!

SINGING: # Keep St George in my heart

# Keep me English

# Keep me English till my dying day. #

Right, Sgt Ryan! We'll escort this lot round.

The English Defence League is en route

to one of their regular summer demonstrations across Yorkshire.

Alpha, Yankee from Charlie Two-Zero...

Today, they're on the 10.25 to Dewsbury,

escorted by the British Transport Police.

That's what it says "No surrender". "No surrender"!

CHANTING: ED! EDL! ED! EDL!

You can take your flags down, all right! You're being escorted... OK?

I want no shouting, no chanting, nothing like that.

CHANTING

-Oh, it would be the greatest job in the world.

-If what?

If we didn't have any passengers. It would be lovely.

Ride around, look at the cows.

HE SIGHS

Jason has been driving commuter trains across Yorkshire for the past ten years.

SINGING: # Keep St George in my heart, keep me English

# Keep me English till my dying day. #

I saw them in Leeds station a few years back...

Oh, carrying on, spitting and all...

shouting vile abuse and... Phff!

SINGING

You can't choose who you carry.

No, you...pay your ticket and you get your carriage, don't you?

CHANTING

It's not really my cup of tea.

CHANTING: ..EDL! ED! EDL!

It's when the sun comes out, when he puts his hat on,

that everybody comes out to play.

Usually, when I'm at work. Yeah.

WHISTLE BLOWS

MAN SLURS HIS SPEECH

With the sun comes the alcohol,

making this a challenging season for everyone at the station.

The British Transport Police remove yet another drunk from the platform.

Craig is one of 70 police officers based here.

The hot weather, you drink, you think you're getting hydration, but you're dehydrating with the alcohol

and people find themselves in a sorry state.

Marshmallow Man on the rubber carpet.

SLURS HIS SPEECH

Right, you're under arrest for drunk and disorderly!

Keep talking to us.

You're all right.

-What's happened?

-Drunk and disorderly. On arrest, he's gone down.

Banged his head on the floor.

If you do sort of stop and think, "Well, what's your story?"

Cos everybody's got a story. And we find ourselves in quite a privileged position.

Because we walk into somebody's life at a given moment.

It might be a moment of elation or a moment of distress.

It might be something that's troubling them.

And all the time you're watching them to think, "What's your story? What's going on?"

These are people who probably make fairly big decisions in real life.

And they've had a couple of halves of lager too many,

and all of a sudden everything that's organised about them just goes out the window.

-Right, are you ready?

-Yeah, we're ready.

-Here we go!

-Can I get past?

-Let the driver off, please!

CHANTING AND BANGING

Leeds! Leeds!

Leeds!

Make way for the driver.

Drunk passengers are common across the network.

But up here in Yorkshire, in the smaller stations outside Leeds,

summer brings a unique challenge.

Munch bunch now. They'll be banana split by 11 o'clock!

It's Saturday and from now on every weekend

will see summer revellers out on the Real Ale Trail...

..a pub crawl by train.

-That one, fella.

-That one?

-There's a seat next to the banana!

Just all part of me customer service

and me welcoming persona. Hello! Hello! Hello!

It's the most dreaded shift of the week,

and, today, Jason has drawn the short straw.

You live in blissful ignorance till Saturday comes

and then you're like, "Oh!"

Until three years ago, this ordinary stopping service

through Yorkshire's prettiest villages was used by just the occasional shopper.

"What do you do?" "I'm a train driver." "Ooh, do you go to London?" "No."

"Do you drive the big one?" "No." I think that's the public perception.

That all the best drivers drive the big shiny ones to London. I can tell you that's not true.

-What do the best drives do then, Jason?

-They provide a public service in the face of adversity.

-What is that adversity?

-Adversity's usually the public.

# We will, we will rock you! #

Since the Real Ale Trail became more well known,

the shoppers and their families now find themselves in the middle of a party

on the journey from Batley to Stalybridge.

OK, lads!

This pub crawl means real-alers stop off at a station to sample a pint from a nearby pub,

before catching the train to the next station, and pub, down the line and so on.

SINGING: # Who ate all the pies?

# You fat b'stard! You fat b'stard!

# You ate all the pies! #

It's a good social study. You should come along. Have a watch.

The demise of man on the ale trail,

between the hours of 12 and eight. Like an evolution.

They go from standing up all proper to lying in a puddle.

SINGING: # We're getting off the train! Getting off the train! #

WALKIE-TALKIE: 'It's getting a bit rowdy this way.'

Rowdy?

Rowdy. Rowdy's the word.

By the afternoon, special security teams are drafted in

to these usually unmanned stations.

The real ale passengers, it seems, need looking after.

SHOUTING

-Oh, you fucking clown!

-Oh...!

'I was just messing about. It were only a joke.

'A joke when the train's due is not that funny.'

I just don't want your mate to get killed by a train.

-If there's a train coming, yeah.

-It would be a good funeral. He's a great lad.

HORN BLARES

'..A report from the West Yorkshire Police of a man trespassing in the Slaithwaite station area.

'Caution in that area... Over.'

HORN BLARES

They've had a report of a man trespassing,

which will no doubt be an ale-trailer.

It just means you have to slow down to a speed that you can stop within the distance you can see clear.

So, obviously, if he's still on or about the line, we're not going to hit him.

Could everyone stand back from the platform edge, please?

- Let me warn you... - I nearly died!

There are eight stations and pubs along the route.

And as the day wears on, drivers, conductors and the security teams

have all become minders.

-He's ran over the fucking line!

-Oh, has he?

Oooh!

I can't leave here. They're all leaning against side of the train.

HORN BLARES What's going on here then?

Can't get on without them, can we?

Holding doors. They stand whilst their mates... They can't be bothered running for the trains.

-Shut the doors, Geoff.

-Oh, come on!

Jason's train is now delayed, as he can't move until the real-alers are clear of the doors.

-Get on! What?

-No, we've got to wait for 'em.

HEY!

-No, it's too late now.

-Come on!

-Too late.

WHISTLE BLOWS

SIGNAL TO DRIVER

Yeah, six minutes down now.

-Why is that?

-All that carry on there.

Now these nutters here, look.

He's battered, in't he?

He's lucky that express went through a few minutes ago.

That lad had sea legs there. He wouldn't have got out the way.

HORN BLARES

People just come running across the track. It's an accident waiting to happen, to be honest.

You know, but that's just the way it is on this ale trail.

Whilst a handful of passengers can cause difficulty,

it only takes one to delay trains right across the network.

Route Control into York. Jerry speaking.

It's five o'clock in Route Control.

Jerry and his team have had a call about a train that's stopped

on the line between Manchester and Leeds.

Train Running Control, York. Jason speaking.

A fight's broken out between passengers on board.

Police and ambulance are there.

Lovely. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

Police have arrived.

The train won't go forward, so it's obviously escalating.

Got a backlog of trains now. So 2-Mike-83 is the train involved.

That's the one that's got the trouble on board.

We've got another four, five, six, seven trains stood behind.

They've now asked for the down to be blocked as well.

People are spilling on to the track. Police have requested both lines blocked.

This is Network Rail Control at York. This is an emergency call...

Route Control is forced to stop all trains in the area.

Please respond, over.

Delays caused by members of the public on the track are a daily occurrence.

Trespass becomes frustrating because they shouldn't be there. They're committing an offence.

If this was France or America, we would run them over.

There's no fences in France. People go on the railway, it's their own fault they're there.

And America is very much the same. We are perhaps a bit too much of a nanny state in my opinion.

People go on the railway and it's almost like we've got to stop and protect them.

That's the way it is. There's nothing I can do about that.

Network Rail has a legion of maintenance staff whose job it is to keep trespassers off their track.

Kev and Stev from the Leeds team

have been called out to repair a fence on the outskirts of the city.

Toodle-pip. Give us a shout if you need.

-Where you going?

-Kirkstall.

-Kirkstall? Straight ahead.

Straight ahead!

-Straight ahead!

-Straight ahead?!

-Not fucking down there!

-Straight ahead.

-Straight ahead?

We've got plenty of names - Gruesome Twosome. Toot and Plute.

I won't call him fucking Tom-Tom, cos he don't know shagging way!

LAUGHTER

-We caught someone last time we were here, didn't we?

-Yeah.

Kev and Stev are responsible for keeping over 700 miles of fencing intact.

Once, just a boundary marking, big fences are now the only way to keep the determined trespasses out.

Repairs are constant and costly.

I'll take a few just in case the bastards have pinged any more off.

-You can see trespass route.

-Yeah.

-So it's definitely been used. How many's off?

-Just the one.

People don't want to live next to something that looks like Stalag Luft.

When were't last time you saw kids standing on't fence waving to train drivers?

Now it looks like... You're standing there, behind back of fence, like...

It's not the same as what it used to be!

HE LAUGHS

It seems to be... I don't know... It's like a gay haunt.

If they did it on their side of the fence, no great problem.

-It's when they actually start intruding on to our side...

-That we do have a problem.

We actually caught a chap running down with an orange wig

as we came up one day to check the fence line.

I think he thought, "Jesus Christ, I've got Village People arriving!"

I'm in for a good one 'ere!

How many times have I returned to this?

You know, how many have we actually put on?

And you're paying 300 quid for a train ticket to go from A to B and they want to know why.

Because, literally, we're having to keep maintaining it

and it's costing more and more money to rectify it.

We'll just keep doing it until one day, I don't know...

the relatives come along and tie some flowers to the side of fence

because they got run over.

Then there'd be more tributes to 'em...

-Then they'd blame us for having a hole in the fence.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

"My Johnny made a hole in your fence and your train run him over!" How ironic can you get?

A trespasser is killed nearly ever week on our railways.

WHISTLE BLOWS

WHISTLE BLOWS

Stand back from the train, please! The train's leaving now.

Six o'clock at Leeds Station and the commuters are eager to get home.

Leeds is the worst in the country for passengers running across the tracks.

'It is an offence to trespass on the railway. Please keep off the tracks.'

People taking short cuts to catch their train.

Kids playing chicken, as well as the very drunk.

They all seem oblivious to the dangers.

Saturday, a person under the influence

got off a platform in front of an oncoming train. This is madness!

Trains are silent, trains are fast and it's very, very risky.

Unfortunately...

Route director Phil Verster, responsible for everything between London King's Cross and Edinburgh,

is launching Network Rail's anti-trespass campaign here at Leeds.

OK, if you come towards me.

Wendy's son was killed by a train while playing on the tracks.

She's joining the campaign today to help raise awareness.

For all these years since 1997, I've never said his name.

It was like a spark and it goes.

There's just something missing. There's always something missing.

It's like something's ripped something out and it's there all the time.

And you still sometimes think they're going to come home.

You see all their friends growing up and they've got children. You wonder, "What if?"

You've never got anything of that. All I've got is...

Come Christmas, birthdays, all I've got is to take flowers to the tracks. That's all I've got of my son.

I've got photographs, but that's sort of the clearest one.

It's the same one. I need someone to digitally change his jumper on it or something, so he looks different.

Cos, unfortunately, you always end up with the same ones.

-Look at it.

-This is how he was.

-Good-looking chap.

-Not bad for his age, was he?

That was the cap he had on the day before.

The one that he had on was destroyed.

So that was the nearest I got and it's getting a bit tatty now.

But it goes everywhere. Even when I'm all poshed up.

TRAIN WHEELS RATTLE

PHONE RINGS

-'National Operations Centre. Dave speaking.

-Hello. One under.'

INAUDIBLE

INDISTINCT VOICE ON RADIO

Reports coming in of a person under a train

in, er, the Doncaster area.

Hearing more reports as it comes in.

SIREN BLARES

PHONE RINGS

'Hello, it's Network Rail Control at York. We've got a fatality just occurred.

'We're thinking he might be about 16, 17 year old, maybe younger.

'Yeah, we're not sure about opening things up as yet.'

It's thought the victim is a teenage boy who'd been trespassing on the tracks 40 miles south of Leeds.

While police and Network Rail teams deal with the scene,

Craig has to go and break the news to the boy's mother.

'Could you just confirm how many trains are stuck at the moment?

'Well, itself and two others. Another four stood behind that with about 800 people on 'em.'

PA: 'We are sorry that services are subject to delay because of the fatality.

'Every effort is being made to restore services to normal as quickly as possible.'

Trains will have stopped running at the incident,

for operational safety and also...

the respect for the deceased.

Come on, let's go.

'The reality of the report is that such is the state of the remains of the body

'that we could still be quite some time.'

With trains across the region stopped while the body's removed,

Craig first calls in at the local police station for a briefing.

It's very, very sad. This lad is one of our regular miscreants.

Sergeant Gregory was one of the first on site.

ID's a problem, because, of course, we've got significant injuries.

Two days ago, he was caught playing chicken with cars.

A week ago, BTP had some involvement playing chicken on the railway track.

Problem we've got is that his mum, she's working nights, unaware that this has gone off.

-We need that sorted.

-Yeah, we need to deal with it.

Right. Going to go speak to Mum.

We've just got to go and do the hard bit and ruin Mum's... Well, probably ruin her life, bless her.

Mm.

-Are you all right, Craig?

-Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

There's this sort of moment you get beforehand, you're thinking about...

You're about to tell somebody the worst possible news

and it's not something you can take lightly, really.

-Right.

-Let's do it.

-Let's do it.

-Let's do it.

Yeah, yeah. It's not, er...

Not an easy thing to do. Not at all.

And, you know, it's such an instant and raw grief.

You know, there are so many "why" questions, you know.

It's...

HE SIGHS

If a police officer tells you that they don't feel it,

then they're not being honest with you.

You hurt like hell.

You...

You know.

I'm a big lad, but I cry, you know.

Cos you've got a lot of "why" questions yourself.

And then you go home to, you know...

I go home to my wife and my beautiful daughter...

You know, it's hard not to carry a little bit of it.

You don't forget a name, you don't forget a place.

Sometimes you don't even forget train numbers.

It's 4.00am. All the trains have been cleared,

and Craig is now visiting the site of the fatality.

He's here to do a last check of the tracks in daylight

for any of the boy's personal items before the first trains are due.

BIRDS SING

It's quite odd, isn't it? Another morning comes up and everything changes.

Another day starts and all of a sudden there'll be thousands of commuters travelling this line,

with no idea what's gone on the night before.

Mm.

Anything personal...

I would imagine will be strewn on the other side.

-I did notice a couple of pieces of a white hoodie that were obviously his.

-All right.

-OK.

-And one sock.

OK.

-See, that's definitely looking like point of impact.

-Yeah.

-Obviously, with the downdraught from train. It's...

-Pulled it back.

Can you pop that in there for me?

Cheers.

OK.

TRAIN ROARS

'This is the 06.37 Northern Train service...'

to Manchester Victoria via Halifax.

Into battle!

Come for your morning hug? LAUGHTER

Train conductor Bridey has been on shift since the crack of dawn.

She's on the 6.37 to Manchester, full of her regular commuters.

Anyone need tickets? Any more tickets? Yes, love...

You wouldn't believe what habits I learn about people when you do the same job for five years.

People said to me, "The toilet's been engaged for half an hour."

I can look at me watch and where we are and know who it is.

That's how bad it is!

Are you all right, yeah?

See you later! Bye! See you!

See you. See you later.

Bye.

Time is money. It's been a right laugh! We'll do lunch next week.

As ex-wife used to say, "That were quick!"

Oh, if you'd have fallen then! See you later on!

WHISTLE BLOWS

Everybody's rushing, especially in this day and age.

In the morning at Leeds Station, it's obviously a big city, one station,

and when they're all coming over the escalator, if you stood back away from it all,

it's just like millions of ants going over the escalator.

Nobody stops, it doesn't matter what happens.

We saw a little old lady fall over. About four people stepped over her, before anybody went to help her.

Obviously, we all need to get to work, but it seemed a little bit harsh.

A lot of people just don't have any thought for anybody else.

I always remember, my husband had just died, and I weren't working fully. I was collecting fares.

This lady got hysterical about a train leaving three minutes before.

There were no calming her down. I had to walk away.

All I could think was, "I wish I just had to worry about a train, getting it three minutes later."

It does make some things seem really, really petty sometimes.

Yo! How long are we going to be here?

-It's up to the signaller.

-Bullshit!

It's in my pocket!! You've already seen it!

I think it's the nature of the building and the job, you know.

Fucking...

It might be possessed. Leeds Station might be possessed.

Turns everybody into angry people.

Everything's our fault.

I can't understand it. They'll go out there and they'll change into nice people again.

Use your tickets at the barriers, please.

Thank you so much!

-Cheers.

-My season ticket's got stuck in here.

Again!

Cheers.

Ah, I can't wait to get home to my boys.

I miss 'em.

-Thank you very much.

-What's it like working with your dad?

You've got to be on your best behaviour...

..to show respect, isn't it?

You've got to respect your dad.

He'll tell me, "Railway job, job is for life." That's what he'll say to me.

He'll probably bollock me... if I'd leave.

-I'd like to go through, please.

-You should use your tickets.

I wanted to have my own business or something.

You know, be a businessman or something.

It doesn't go your own way though, does it?

Is she all right? You sure?

Oh, playing dead.

By 10pm, the busy commuters have gone

and now most of Imran's passengers have been for a drink, or two.

Fuck this, fuck this, man!

They said, "You've had a few drinks. We're taking you off the train."

They fucking robbed me. They took my ticket off me! Fucking pricks!

I swear to God...!

As nightclubs and bars surrounding the station begin to close,

Imran prepares himself for partygoers, of all ages,

taking the last trains home.

That's bad, is that - that guy!

I mean, he's weeing there. Full view of people.

Ah, deary me!

-I just want to, like... I want to go home.

-Just come here.

-Just take a seat. He's just weed over there.

-Weed?!

That big puddle!

There's people going about their everyday business and you're urinating in a public place.

-It's not acceptable really, is it? OK.

-I, I, I'm so sorry.

I don't drink. I mean...

I was asking, "How's it like to be drunk? What happens?"

They were explaining it to me and I still don't get it.

It must be strong stuff.

Can't wait to get home.

Ha-ha.

-'Ere you are, mate.

-Yes, sir. SLURRED RESPONSE

-Sorry.

-SLURRED RESPONSE

Fitzwilliam. 13B. You've got to be quick.

-I'm going that way. Come on.

-Can you take me, please?

-Are you all right?

-Yeah, I'm all right.

-You sure?

-Can you take me, please?

-Yeah, I'll take you.

-Are you all right to take me?

-Yeah, straight on.

-Give you some money?

-I don't want no money. It's all right.

-Can I give you some money now?

-No, no, you're all right.

Where we going now?

Down here. Oh, sorry. This...

-You do know where you're going?

-Yeah!

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

Fucking, all right here.

-I need to get my train now.

-You pillocking me?

-What's that?

-You fucking pillocking me?

-No, no, honestly, I'm not.

I need to get my train now.

Downstairs. You can use the stairs if you want.

Pillocking him! Right.

IMRAN LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

Some of them are double my age. I'm like, "Whoa!"

You should look...

look up to your elders.

And if you're looking up to people that are drunk and swearing and just doing what they like.

It's not nice.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Imran will be back on the ticket barriers tomorrow evening.

THUNDER RUMBLES

It's the wettest summer for a century

and Yorkshire is one of the worst affected areas.

PA: 'This is a safety announcement.

'Due to today's wet weather, please take extra care whilst on the station.'

For the railway staff, weather like this is far more challenging than the most difficult of passengers.

And it's Friday, the busiest day of the week.

We've got another storm coming. It's gone dark.

It's like night-time suddenly.

Are we going to float away from Leeds Station?

Lovely weather(!)

Dozens of rapid response teams are deployed to keep the trains moving.

Torrential downpours in certain areas, isn't it?

The drains just can't take the volume of water.

Have a caution in for definite here.

Because lightning's hit axle counters.

I'm piss wet through out here just checking on't flooding. Top of roadway's flooded, as well.

First stop is on the outskirts of Leeds.

Here, a road next to the train line has flooded because the council's drain is blocked.

Because they don't maintain it on a regular basis,

fills up, water then flows through the fence line straight on to railway.

And people keep asking, "Why are you slowing my train down again?"

It's because your local council couldn't be bothered to clean the drains out.

If nothing interfered with the railway, trains would run on time.

But because it's literally...

external things what keep naffing the railway.

Like this!

Yeah, yeah! I know it's flooded. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, there's always a story.

-No idea.

-No idea.

Not at this moment in time. We have got people out working on it.

There's not a great deal we can do

because of the sheer volume of water coming down.

A month's worth of rain has fallen in just one day

and flooding sites are popping up all over Kev and Stev's patch,

as water pours off the neighbouring land on to the tracks.

This is a classic. It used to be wasteland.

They build a brand-new housing estate or umpteen new factories.

They haven't packed it into anything.

They've literally stuck it on to embankment.

"There you go. It's yours now!

"You deal with it."

There's definitely no trains going at this moment in time. It's flooded.

-If I wait for the next one, will it definitely come?

-No.

There's no let up in the rain and by 3.00pm flooding has crippled the network.

All trains on this mainline from Leeds to London

have now been stopped.

Controlled havoc would be a good description.

It's a weather event. It's quite unprecedented for the time of year.

It looks like every route that we've got has got major incidents on it.

And with rush hour fast approaching,

the pressure is on to get the trains moving.

Hello, mate. Is this urgent, or can it wait?

There's a massive tree stump what's wedged in.

Er, at side.

Then we're off to Calverley. It may need the sandbags building back up.

Hope he's not looking for his fleece. I've just pinched his.

It's the only dry one we've got left!

Every minute counts and it's things we have no control over.

Kev and Stev have been despatched to the site where trains are stranded.

The line is closed because once floodwater rises above the rail,

there's a very real risk of derailment.

Basically, when the railhead's covered,

it's not very practical to run trains on something you can't see.

-You don't know what's floating in it.

-Or if it's washed away track.

The drainage system is now overwhelmed.

So there's nowhere to pump the water to.

The only thing they can do is try

to channel the water away from the rails.

Once we get it so it can actually drop down below railhead,

then we can start running them at 5mph.

At least get passengers up and running again. You know what I mean?

-So that's been delayed as well?

-Yeah.

Rush hour. Routes are now blocked in almost every direction.

Staff on the front line are struggling to give any options to the passengers.

-You know that train to Glasgow that's been delayed?

-Yeah.

-What are the chances of it getting here?

-Erm...

I don't know. That's being completely honest.

It's stuck behind a flood.

I don't know what to say.

-Do you know if the next one will be running, or...?

-I don't. I would doubt it at the moment.

Doubt it?

That's the only train that goes to Thurnscoe, where we need to be.

You said Sheffield! I was telling you about the Sheffield train.

Not a Thurnscoe train!

I know you're probably having a really bad day and all that,

but you're supposed to be calming me down, not me calming you down, mate!

Going slowly.

Kev and Stev have at last managed to drop the water levels

enough to open the line.

My underpants are really wet now!

But getting trains moving is a slow process.

They're only allowed to run at 5mph,

causing them to stack up as they

await their turn to go through the flooded area.

"You delayed my train, you!"

"I'm sat on the train. You're stood outside the train.

"It must be your fault why I am not getting between Point A and Point B."

It's always our fault.

Flooding. "So why didn't you deal with it?"

Oh, my life! Erm...

HE LAUGHS

Er, right. Let me just do some maths first.

For every minute a train is delayed

by flooding, trespassers or any technical problems,

it's Network Rail that foots the bill.

It's been absolutely phenomenal.

We've accrued, in just one day alone...

This is looking at lightning strikes, which account for 2,600 minutes.

16,500 minutes' worth of delay caused by flooding across the route.

In a day, that's probably two months' worth of budget in terms of minutes,

which is huge.

-Right then, could everyone move...

-This gentleman was first.

-If you've got a car parked in the station...

-No need to be rude to me!

-I'm asking a civil question.

-I'm not being rude.

Are we getting individual taxis? Simple question!

Yeah, just hang on here. Members of staff will come and sort you out.

Network Rail has to pay up to £200 for every minute of delay to the train companies,

some of which is passed on to the passengers, claiming ticket refunds, or taxis home.

You have to be patient. I appreciate it's not been a great night for you, but he is doing his best.

Anyone else wanting a claim form?

Might be a complaint form for lack of complaint forms in a minute!

We're running out very drastically, yeah. Chuffing hell!

From my opinion, it would be so much better if this was all excludable and we didn't pay anything.

If someone said, "That's something you can't do anything about, we'll write it off."

But the regimes don't work like that.

There you go, love. That's your claims form, OK?

On Jerry's route, compensation paid out for flooding on this ONE day

is £1 million.

Bingley and Keighley!

'People wonder why trains are expensive.

'It's completely nonsense.'

A bit of a lonely existence.

You have to enjoy your own company.

Which I do, to a degree.

It's like Wildlife On One on this job, isn't it?

I've hit dogs, cats, foxes... I've hit 'em all!

I've never hit a magpie. Far too clever.

Pigeons aren't the cleverest of animals, are they?

They tend to sit in't tree and wait till you're coming past,

and then fly out in front of you.

Pigeon playing chicken, who would have thought?

Pheasants tend to stand on railhead and sort of look around.

It must be something to do with not having binocular vision,

cos they can't judge perspective, so you're about four feet away before they realise.

-And then what?

-They sort of go, "Uh!" and then you hit 'em.

Hiya. When's the next train to New Pudsey?

10B. Up the steps and left.

THEY LAUGH HYSTERICALLY

It was like that. Like really thick here and then really thin.

I couldn't... I couldn't help it!

Oh, that were funny, that were.

Introduce yourself.

Hiya.

Young man.

I am a regular train spotter around West Yorkshire

and I come to Leeds quite a lot,

and I know quite a lot of East Coast staff,

including drivers, guards, Hanif himself.

A fan club!

I'm 17 and I absolutely love diesels.

HANIF LAUGHS

No, not very pretty these ones. These are modern.

Train of the week?

Not my train of the week. My train of the week is a different one to that.

That's a proper engine. Class 37, built in 1960.

Brilliant celebration of British engineering. Built in this country.

Still going 50 years later.

Not mine, but I do part-own one the same.

For us, a lot of it's about... It's us recreating our past.

It's how we used to work in the days of British Rail and before,

where we ran the railways as a purely railway, rather than a business.

In those days, it was about playing trains.

Nowadays, you have got a different world you're working in.

CHANTING AND SINGING

Come with me.

A man in dark clothing has been spotted by the tracks -

a suspected cable thief.

It's top priority for British Transport Police officer Craig.

SIREN BLARES Come on, Mr Taxi! What you doing?

Over the past five years,

cable theft has become one of the biggest threats to the railways

and Yorkshire suffers the most.

We've got a cable theft in progress.

There's been a sighting of a male who's European looking,

at the line side looking at the cable at the side of the rail.

Cos we get a lot of cable theft,

so we make it an immediate grade and we get out there and see what we've got.

The concern is, if the man steals essential signalling cable,

no trains can run.

Ooh! Sweet child of mine!

Thefts happen every week in this region.

Thieves stripping the cable for the valuable copper inside.

And this is the area we're looking at here,

just to our right, and there's a bit of track up the side

and, at the end of the track...

Where's he running to? Watch the male in the grey there!

Him doing a legger!

-That's the guy.

-Take a grip of him!

SIREN STOPS

Charlie 3-8 on scene. Two males with us at this time.

-One matching description. Stand by.

-Description of what?

-Right, OK.

-You've not been on the railway at all?

-No, I haven't been on the railway.

-I'm just going to speak to my colleague and check this guy out. Do you know this gentleman?

-No.

It turns out he's just a passer-by.

So Craig turns his attention to the other man who does match description.

I'm going to search you, OK? Because you've been on that side of the railway and we get cables stolen,

I can search you under Section 1 of PACE, all right?

-Right.

-Why?

Just turn this way for me, so I can feel that pocket. OK.

OK. Straight-forward trespass.

Just have a word, Craig.

There's nothing that would suggest to me that he's anything other than probably a little bit naive.

-Report him for trespass, then.

-Yeah, he'll get reported for trespass.

-We'll leave you to it.

-Right, then.

The man says he's been taking a short cut home. But he has been trespassing

and will face a fine of up to £1,000.

It would be lovely to get a cable thief, but he's a trespasser, so...

As far as cable thieves are concerned...

HE SIGHS

It's not dark enough, I would say, just yet.

As we get into the night, then they come out. The cover of darkness. But we'll see what the night brings.

Cable thieves cost the railway £16 million every year

and disrupt nearly four million train journeys.

It's Monday night and British Transport police officer Steve Kite is visiting a known hot spot.

-I think our buggers have done this today.

-Yeah.

-Has it been cut?

-Yeah.

4-6.

..Cut just there and it's been lifted there.

What they've done is gone straight through this chicken-wire fence.

And you're immediately next to hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of copper-rich cable.

And over the past six weeks they've just systematically stripped it away.

This stretch of track now has probably seen

something in the region of about £150,000's worth of cable theft.

That sort of money they'll never get.

Scrap value for them, at best, is a couple of grand.

And they won't stop. They can't stop.

These are people who don't want to get caught,

who are carrying axes, knives.

Policing Britain's 20,000 miles of track,

most of it through remote areas, is a challenge.

Steve is part of a specialist task force

with hi-tech cameras and alarms at their disposal.

But tonight, they deploy some plain old-fashioned surveillance...

from a bush.

DOG WHINES

Ten miles up the track, a different gang of thieves has stolen cable from a commuter line

for the second night in a row.

That's the helicopter.

-Could be anywhere.

-These lads have said where they've seen cable out of the troughing.

Just finding the cut in miles of cable and then re-jointing and testing up to 96 connections,

can take several hours.

If the technical team can't fix it before morning,

the commuter trains won't run.

That there. They've cut it on that.

All of a sudden, it's kicked in again. Price of copper must've...

-Looks quite clean, that.

-Yeah.

For all they know, it could be high voltage.

We had one last week, where they found a dead body

underneath some arcing cable that was obviously a theft attempt.

To some, I'd say poetic justice.

25,000 volts is a lot of volts to play with.

It's a constant battle we're faced with that we weren't faced with 15 years ago even.

I think the pressure of living in the UK in 2012, financially,

has led people that wouldn't have committed such crimes to commit what they see as an easy hit.

Do you think they're getting cleverer?

Oh, I think some of them even know

what they're doing now, don't they, lads?

I hope we're not doing this just to set it all up for them again for tomorrow night.

Steve and his colleagues

have been waiting in the bushes for two hours now.

And they've just spotted movement further down the track.

-WHISPERS:

-Down! Get down!

Come here!

-WHISPERS:

-There's a torch in the distance. What is it?

-Follow it round the corner.

-See it?

-Yeah, yeah. I've got him.

There's someone on the track with a torch and a vehicle.

Come on, then.

8-0-4, if you can cover where we've just come from.

We've got this end covered.

It's the police! British Transport Police.

Er, Network Rail.

-Hello, mate.

-You OK?

-Just the two of you?

-There's another lad down there...

-Right.

-No worries. OK.

-All right, pal! Cheers, guys. Cheers, boys.

I got all excited for a minute then.

-Never say never.

-No.

We know it's going to happen. They know they're going to do it.

They can't stop doing it and we can't stop trying to catch 'em.

Sometimes they win, sometimes we win.

It's a score draw at the minute, I think.

-Next goal wins.

-Next goal wins.

I thought that was it.

Back in Leeds, the last trains of the night are leaving.

Stragglers remain around the station

and the police are still on duty.

-I need to get to Hull. I've got a little boy!

-There's no more trains to Hull tonight.

Do not f... Do not talk to me like I am a schoolboy.

-There's no more trains to Hull.

-Please, son...

-I'm not your son.

I'm going to ask you ONCE to leave the station. I've asked you nicely...

Earlier today, this man was removed from a train for smoking and drunkenness.

SHOUTING

Told to sober up before travelling, he's continued to drink

and has now missed his last train home.

SHOUTING

Sometimes it's easier with newborn babies...

..than with grown adults in, er, in alcohol.

We'll give him one last opportunity to disappear.

The British Transport Police has the same powers as any other police force,

but is paid for by Network Rail,

train companies and, ultimately, through ticket fares.

Oh, no! Look who it is, Dec!

I'm not going to tell you again. We're busy dealing with other jobs.

I'll not keep coming back to you because you're drunk.

Disappear off the station, please. Go away! We've got other things to do!

Right, listen! You've had a bad day.

You've been to a funeral and I've allowed for that!

I've given you the benefit of the doubt, allowing for your day.

Leave the station, please, or you will be arrested. Disappear!

If he carries on, he's going to get himself arrested for being drunk and disorderly,

cos we can't leave him like this and he just won't leave.

You don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you fail to mention...

I'm innocent! I don't deserve this!

Bloody hell!

-Hello.

-This is Elias, me brother. He's the middle one.

Is that the grumpy one?

-Is that true?

-No, it's not true. He's the team leader.

I always got to the table first, as you can see, from my size.

See you in a bit.

It's like a second home, in't it? You know everybody, you know what I mean?

-How's it going?

-All right, mate. Tango.

-You've got your family and then you've got your railway family?

-Some people think of it that way.

It's like that, I suppose.

There's always one brother that gets on your tits, isn't there?

I'm waiting for my daddy.

-Boo!

-Aaagh!

How did you get behind us?!

It's good to see you.

"Daddy, did you have a good time on honeymoon?"

If you start to believe they're all the same, it's another drunk or it's another ticket fraud...

To become cynical and say, "You know, I'm not going to deal with this."

Time to go then.

Time to go.

Ta-ta!

Suspect package on a train at Leeds.

It's a unique industry. There's nothing else I know anything like it.

What, when I started being interested?

Probably about 12, but the days of writing numbers down are 20 years gone.

-Did you?

-Once upon a time.

But it's not done me any harm.

I've ended up where I am, doing a job I love doing.

And, very much, that's what it does.

It gives you the passion for trying to deliver a better railway.

No matter how difficult it may be at times.