ProRail estimates water damage to rail at half a million, more damage in neighboring countries

The damage to the railways due to the floods in Limburg is estimated at 500,000 euros, a spokesperson for rail manager ProRail confirms after reporting by trade magazine

.

In Belgium the costs amount to 50 million euros and in Germany hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

According to ProRail, the rail damage in the Netherlands is not that bad, because the main focus of the floods was in Belgium and Germany.

For example, there were no deaths in the Netherlands, while that was the case in the other two countries.

ProRail is now examining where damage has occurred and how this can be avoided in the future.

In addition, a special team is working on climate change.

In the coming weeks, it will look at where additional improvement measures are needed.

'Chance of unexpected failures in the future'

"We remain alert. Much damage will only become visible in the coming months or years. Cables, for example, corrode faster and over time. That could cause unexpected failures in the future," says a spokesperson.

In Eijsden, the track was partly under water, which means that the train between Maastricht and Liège will no longer run until mid-August.

On the track, twelve electrical coils that connect the rails to each other have to be replaced.

Damage much greater in Belgium and Germany

The Belgian rail network operator Infrabel estimates the damage to the track at 30 to 50 million euros.

"In total, we have to lay 70,000 tons of new pebbles and replace several tens of thousands of sleepers. And more than 10 kilometers of railway embankments and ground subsidence have to be stabilized again," a spokesperson told the Belgian broadcaster

.

In Germany, government sources tell

news agency

that the damage will run into the hundreds of millions of euros and that repairing both the railway and the road would require some 2 billion euros.