In the night from Saturday to Sunday, an intercity with hundreds of passengers on board was derailed between Weert and Haelen in the Netherlands. A spokesman for the fire service said no injuries were reported. The Dutch Railways (NS) announced that the travelers had been taken to nearby Roermond with a replacement train. The cause of the derailment was a collision with a rail.
Infrastructure manager ProRail announced earlier today that there were about 500 passengers on the train. Later that was corrected to 250 passengers. However, the security region subsequently reported that it would be about 500 passengers, including “many young people who visited the fair in Weert”, according to a spokesperson. Due to the derailment, train traffic between Weert and Roermond was shut down for hours.
The train derailed due to a collision with a rail. It is still unclear how it ended up there, a ProRail spokesperson reported. The national police unit is conducting a technical investigation into the possible cause of the derailment.
The train has now been put back on the track and can drive away independently. The track itself has been damaged, but not to the extent that train traffic can no longer run over it.
The railway manager expects that the track between Weert and Roermond can be reopened around 1.30 pm, after which the railway company can restart the timetable. The damage to the track will be repaired at a later date.
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