No badgers have yet been spotted during work on the railway embankment in Esch in Brabant. ProRail sees this as a good sign. The manager will continue the work around the badger sett under the railway, so that trains can run again soon.
No trains have been running on the Eindhoven-Den Bosch route since Tuesday, because the railway embankment is unstable. This is because badgers have dug a huge burrow there.
“We have not yet encountered a single badger when digging and we are happy with that,” a ProRail spokesperson told NU.nl. “We want to get the trains running again on the Brabant rail link as soon as possible, but we don’t want to give travelers and transporters of goods false hope.”
It appears that the badgers left on their own after the digging began, it writes Brabants Dagblad. It is still unclear whether this means that trains will be able to run on the track again sooner than expected. Earlier, ProRail said it will strive to have the trains running again by the end of next week.
“Of course we don’t know what we will encounter and we are closely monitoring the situation,” he continues. “If we have a definite answer about how long this will take exactly, we will communicate that immediately.”
Anti-digging mesh and closed tunnels to prevent badgers
To prevent the badgers from digging under the track again to settle there, ProRail is installing anti-digging mesh. “We are installing the anti-excavation mesh well along the track, so that the badgers cannot get through again quickly,” says the ProRail spokesperson.
“We also apply the mesh to the areas that we think are attractive to the badgers.” The railway manager closes the tunnels as soon as all the badgers have left.
ProRail wants to take action sooner at badger setts
ProRail is also working on a national exemption, so that the railway manager can intervene more quickly if badgers live around the track again. Since the badger is a protected species, a permit is required. But it only came Thursday evening, while the problems already arose on Tuesday.
“Now we still have to apply for a separate permit for each area to start digging for badger burrows. That of course takes a lot of time,” the spokesperson explains. “With a national exemption you do not have to go through that process again and again and we can take action sooner.”
The railway manager says it is in talks with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) to get this national exemption as soon as possible.
