Badgers found living around train tracks in some 500 locations last year
Last year, ProRail found signs of badgers living around the Dutch train tracks in around 500 locations. The rail manager has kept an extra close eye on the animal since badger setts - the tunnel systems badgers live in - seriously disrupted train traffic on routes in Friesland and Noord-Brabant in 2023.
The badger traces found last year include excrement, digging marks, and sand piles. ProRail is conducting further investigation at around 50 locations to determine whether the track needs repairs to keep it safe.
“In 2023, we saw setts around the railway at 40 locations, now we have found hundreds of badger traces in total,” Dimitri Kruik of ProRail told NOS. “Setts and badger traces are two different things, but because of that, we expect that the number of locations with a sett has also increased many times over.”
ProRail expects badgers to cause train traffic disruptions more often. “If you see how much inconvenience these types of badger setts have caused for travelers in recent times, then you fear a situation where you will have to intervene much more often,” said Kruik.
In practice, intervention is often easier said than done. Badgers and their setts are protected, which means that the animal cannot be killed or captured and their setts may not be destroyed. However, provinces and government services may grant an exemption for moving the animals when public health is at risk or if there is another “compelling reason of major public interest.” ProRail is in discussion with the responsible Ministries about possibly accelerating this process, which currently takes months.
“If we are quick, we can intervene quickly. But that is different if there is already an entire den where a badger family lives,” Kruik told the broadcaster. “Then we first have to monitor the situation and apply for a permit. That takes a lot of time and all that time there is still the risk that the badger will dig and we have to adjust the train service.”
Dealing with the critters is also a pricey endeavor. In 2023, ProRail spent 2.5 million euros removing a badger sett in Voerendaal in Limburg. Now the rail manager needs to take extra measures at the same location. “We are talking about a stretch of 2 kilometers, there are three active badger setts there. That part has to be excavated and we are going to install sheet piling there,” Kruik explained. “The train service has to be stopped for 40 days and it costs 6.2 million euros.”
ProRail is also spending a lot on research and preventive measures, around 20 million euros, according to Kruik. It’s building fake burrows to entice the animals to move from their own setts, and using “robot moles” to map out entire tunnel networks. But in practice, the rail manager isn’t having much success in keeping badgers away.
In Esch, where a badger sett paralyzed train traffic between Den Bosch and Boxtel for weeks in 2023, badgers have again been found digging near the railway a few hundred meters from the previous sett.
