Rotterdam Rail Disruption Pushed Back for a Fourth Time as Cable Repairs Drag On
A fire in a cable duct near Rotterdam has halted trains to the south of the Netherlands since Monday, and ProRail now expects no service until at least next Monday morning, calling it painstaking work
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Train travel between Rotterdam and the south of the Netherlands has been disrupted for almost a week, and the end is not yet in sight. A fire in a cable duct near Rotterdam has halted all trains on the routes south of the city since Monday, and the rail network manager ProRail has now delayed the repair for a fourth time.
What happened
The trouble began on the morning of Monday 29 June, when a fire broke out in a cable duct (in Dutch, a kabelgoot) near Rotterdam Stadion station, close to the De Kuip football ground. All train traffic between Rotterdam Centraal and the south came to a halt. On Wednesday, ProRail said it had found the cause: a kink in the power supply cable for the overhead line had led to a short circuit, which then started the fire. More than a hundred cables were damaged.
Why the repair is taking so long
Restoring the connection has turned out to be a slow and complicated job. The damaged cables have to be identified, sorted and then welded back together one at a time. ProRail says the work can only go so fast, because the welders are working inside a narrow cable duct with very little room, so extra staff cannot simply be added to speed things up. Once the cables are repaired, the systems have to be thoroughly measured and tested before trains can run. On top of that, the tracks south of Rotterdam have not been used for days, so they have begun to rust and must be cleaned before they can carry trains again. ProRail has described the operation as “monnikenwerk,” a Dutch expression for painstaking, monk-like work.
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Delayed again and again
The estimated reopening has been pushed back several times. ProRail first expected the line to be fixed by Thursday evening, then by Saturday afternoon, then by Sunday morning. In its latest update, it said engineers had found that the damage was even greater than thought, with the underside of some cables also affected, something that only became visible once they were lifted out. As a result, no trains are now expected to run between Rotterdam and the south until at least Monday morning, though ProRail has warned that further setbacks could push that back again.
How to travel in the meantime
While the line is closed, replacement buses are running between Rotterdam Centraal and Zwijndrecht, calling at stations including Rotterdam Blaak, Rotterdam Zuid, Rotterdam Lombardijen and Barendrecht. From Zwijndrecht, trains continue towards Dordrecht, Breda and other destinations. Travellers can also take a longer route via Utrecht, or use the Waterbus, the ferry service in the Rotterdam and Dordrecht region. The national railway NS has said the detour adds around half an hour to an hour to journeys, and advises passengers to check their route before setting off.
International trains affected
The disruption reaches beyond the Netherlands. The high-speed line between Rotterdam and Breda is also closed, which affects international services. Eurostar trains to Brussels and Paris are being rerouted via Utrecht, skipping Schiphol Airport and Rotterdam, which can add about an hour to the journey. Eurostar trains between the Netherlands and London have been cancelled on the Dutch side and now start in Brussels, while EuroCity trains to Belgium are running only between Breda and Brussels.