Dutch lawmakers back plan for rapid response to Russian hybrid sabotage

The arson attack on the Delfshaven railway bridge in Rotterdam, which damaged 35 cables and halted trains for two days, has the former AIVD intelligence service officer Eric Schouten worried about the vulnerability of Dutch rain infrastructure. The concern is fueled by the fact that this is marked the third deliberate disruption of the rail network in just over a year. In the meantime, VVD has proposed to establish a response for threats of increasing Russian sabotage that would help identify and punish for sabotage.

The VVD proposal to establish such a response plan is set to be adopted by the Tweede Kamer on Tuesday. It has the support of at least D66, Pro, JA21, CDA, and SGP, according to De Telegraaf reports. The response plan is intended to ensure that allies respond to hostile actions in a predictable and coordinated manner, VVD MP and initiator De Groot said during a NATO meeting with parliamentarians from other countries.

There is currently a lack of clarity on the issue of the Russian threat, De Groot observed during the meeting. “In practice we basically only have Article 4 if we feel threatened within NATO, for example. There is a large gap between how we deal with the hybrid threat and how we coordinate that response with one another.”

While Dutch lawmakers move to close the gap in how the country responds to hybrid threats, a separate and more immediate issue has been surfacing on the railways. Over the past year, three serious deliberate disruptions have hit the Dutch railway network.

Around the NATO summit in late June 2025, intruders entered a secured site near Amsterdam’s Nieuw Sloten and burped through 25 power cables. This, in turn, had triggered all the trains between Amsterdam and Schiphol as well as Amsterdam and Utrecht to stop for a day. The case remains unsolved.

Then, roughly a month before the most recent incident, saboteurs struck at about 40 different locations across the north and center of the country, welding steel tubes to tracks and disturbing traffic, including on the Leeuwarden-Zwolle route. No perpetrator has been identified.

The most recent arson at the railway bridge in Rotterdam damaged 35 ProRail cables and halted trains for two days. According to the police, it is certain that the act was deliberate.

In early September, former AIVD officer Eric Schouten published an article titled “Europe must start looking at rail security differently.” In his view, the railway is becoming strategically ever more important in Europe and the Netherlands.

“In the coming years the Netherlands wants to make the rail network suitable for much larger military transports. This fits into the European ambition to use the railways, if necessary, to move large numbers of troops.”

But that turns the railway into a target for foreign players. Along the 7,000 kilometers of Dutch track, there are nearly 1,600 "rail-related buildings," ProRail figures show. Many of those are technical rooms containing cables, like the ProRail room that was recently broken into.

"Such buildings are vulnerable to sabotage," Schouten said. "But I do note that when it comes to rail security, ProRail still mainly looks through the lens of copper theft, vandalism, and passenger safety."

The expert argues too little attention is being paid to new threats. "ProRail is responsible for securing the railway. It is typically Dutch to think, "As long as nothing happens, we do nothing." That must change, he said, now that the Netherlands is in conflict with Russia. "Passengers must be prepared for the possibility that NS trains may be cancelled because ProRail's infrastructure has been damaged."

Critical nods on the network must be better protected from sabotage, drones, and cyberattacks, Schouten argues. Additionally, power supplies should be more redundant, and "ProRail must receive support from the police and the ministry in countering sabotage."

The recent Rotterdam arson does not necessarily have to be the work of a foreign power, Schouten said. Criminals and activists have also recently targeted European railways. "Not every train incident is Russian sabotage," he said.

ProRail firmly denies that it is underestimating the railway security, AD reports. It points to a report by the Van der Maat committee that concluded at the end of October last year that the Dutch rail network is vulnerable to sabotage and cyberattacks. In order to better protect the railway, cameras and detection systems against sabotage and drones must be installed, which would require 600 million euros.

ProRail reportedly hopes that funding will become available soon. At the end of this week, Infrastructure Minister Karremans is set to present a new allocation of billions of euros for infrastructure. "With an initial sum of 10 to 15 million euros, we can already to a great deal, for example investing in drone surveillance," ProRail said.