Coordinated track sabotage paralyzes Dutch rail by spoofing signaling systems

More than 35 acts of suspected sabotage hit the Dutch rail network on Tuesday morning, disrupting service across the country’s center and north, including routes serving Amsterdam and Schiphol airport. Infrastructure operator ProRail said unknown actors laid pipes and cables across the tracks at multiple sites — a low-tech attack with a precise technical effect: the metal objects fooled the signaling system into registering phantom trains, so traffic control could not clear the lines. In several locations, new blockages appeared after crews had already removed the first round, pointing to deliberate, repeated interference rather than isolated vandalism.

No suspects or motive have surfaced. Police opened a criminal investigation, and the national prosecutor’s office and intelligence agency AIVD are involved — a signal that authorities are weighing the possibility of a coordinated or hostile campaign against critical infrastructure. The timing coincided with Prinsjesdag, the government’s budget day, and with Farmers Defence Force protests that saw hay bales burned on roads; the group denied responsibility for the rail sabotage but would not rule out individual farmers acting on their own. Officials have drawn no link between the protests and the track incidents. The episode also echoes a suspected sabotage-caused derailment in Normandy, France, days earlier.

The attack underscores how much damage can be inflicted on rail infrastructure without touching a computer network: manipulating the physical inputs that automated safety systems trust is enough to halt an entire region. NS’s interim CEO called for investment in contingency planning and resilience, noting the country’s heavy dependence on rail and the difficulty of substituting bus service when disruption is this widespread. No accidents or injuries resulted, though one train had struck metal on the tracks the previous day near Steenwijk.