{"id":301408,"date":"2025-10-14T18:49:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=66628"},"modified":"2025-10-14T18:49:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:49:45","slug":"the-netherlands-wants-to-rethink-rail-for-military-mobility-and-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=301408","title":{"rendered":"The Netherlands wants to rethink rail for military mobility and resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Europe is weathering a geopolitical storm. That means that rail has suddenly become a key topic in questions of defence. NATO countries are expected to have their infrastructure in order. The Netherlands has assessed its railway network and concludes: it needs a different way of thinking about rail.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>At the request of State Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment Thierry Aartsen, the Dutch Consultation Body for the Physical Environment (OFL) and infrastructure manager ProRail set out to identify the vulnerabilities in the Dutch railway network.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the assessment is twofold: First, the Netherlands needs to rethink its rail strategy, and from that follows point number two: money (600 million euros in investments to be precise).<\/p>\n

Dutch rail policy has long focused on efficiency and punctuality, which has served its purpose well. However, times are changing and so are the needs of the railways. Sabotage, cyber attacks and military transportation are the new themes that need to be dealt with.<\/p>\n

\"Military
Military transport alongside passenger rail in Steenwijk, the Netherlands. Image: Wikimedia Commons. \u00a9 Ministerie van Defensie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From prevention to recovery<\/h2>\n

\u201cCurrent policy assumes incidental, non-intentional disruptions due to, for example, bad weather. That assumption is a thing of the past\u201d, the Dutch infrastructure ministry says. State Secretary Aartsen also highlighted that the Netherlands needs to move beyond just prevention, but also work on \u201cabsorption\u201d and \u201crecovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA targeted disruption can have a large impact on the network\u201d, the OFL report says. A case in point was the large-scale rail disruption during the NATO summit in the Hague, although an official cause has not yet been established. During complex disruptions, solutions depend on the knowledge of \u201csmall groups of experts\u201d, meaning that solutions can take a long time if the experts are unavailable. Interesting to know is that the NATO summit rail disruption prompted the state secretary to commission the investigation in question.<\/p>\n

Bureaucracy and infrastructure<\/h2>\n

A grim picture emerges when looking at the Dutch readiness for military transportation. RailFreight.com\u2019s sister publication SpoorPro<\/a> attended the presentation of the OFL report at a Dutch military base, and writes: \u201cAartsen’s face was filled with astonishment when he heard from a military transport specialist that it currently takes 28 days to enter Germany with military equipment.\u201d This does not have so much to do with infrastructure as it does with bureaucracy, as it is the red tape (in both countries) that is keeping trains on one side of the border.<\/p>\n

But when looking at hard infrastructure, things are also far from perfect. For example, military trains may require adjacent rails to remain unoccupied, so they can interrupt regular civilian traffic for hours. Military transportation would be highly disruptive to other forms of traffic on the already congested Dutch railways.<\/p>\n

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The OFL report issues seven policy recommendations, in short:<\/strong><\/p>\n