Railways in the Netherlands suffered massive disruption on Tuesday when pipes, cables and other materials were placed on dozens of tracks, halting trains and upending the commutes of hundreds of thousands of passengers. While no one has been blamed for the suspected sabotage, the incident coincides with mass protests by farmers angered by government environmental policies, and took place amid reports in local media that farmers had discussed taking direct action against the railways. The Tuesday, September 15 incident is being investigated by police.
So what happened, why are farmers under suspicion, and why would anyone target a railway? Trains in the Netherlands came to a standstill on Tuesday morning, causing delays and cancellations for passengers across central and northern parts of the country. It emerged that items on the tracks had caused trains to be halted.
This is causing section failures. It seems to be sabotage,” ProRail, the country’s rail infrastructure operator, said in a statement. ProRail’s interim CEO Mirjam van Velthuizen said the incident demonstrated how dependent the Netherlands is on its railways and called for greater investment in contingency planning.
ProRail said there were no injuries reported. Sabotage is suspected by the Dutch police, which is investigating. Pipes and cables had been fixed to railway tracks, causing at least 35 signal failures across the country’s network of trains, ProRail said.
That caused the automatic system to change signals to red, preventing trains from passing. The sabotage had been going on since Monday, according to some reports. In one case early on Monday, a train “struck metal” on the track near Steenwijk, in the country’s east, according to media reports.
ProRail said there was no damage because the train was not travelling at full speed. While the perpetrators have not been found, Dutch media has reported speculation that angry farmers are behind the sabotage. ProRail sources told broadcaster NOS that they had spotted farmer groups discussing taking direct action, including by fixing metal pipes to train lines, on social media groups.
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