If it were up to Zandvoort councilor Lars Carree, a fence would soon be installed along the track in the dune area between Overveen and the coastal village. He wants to minimize the number of collisions between trains and deer and hopes that ProRail will get to work as soon as possible. He recently made this clear to the railway manager.
ProRail announced last week that a fence will ‘very likely’ be installed along the stretch of track in question at the end of 2024. Last Sunday evening it happened again: a train collided with a deer. Councilor Mirko Gerrits was on that train and therefore wants to put the deer and fence problem back on the council agenda.
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“Unfortunately there has been another collision recently,” says Carree. “ProRail promised to build the fence in 2022. After that it would be the end of 2023, with an extension to this year. Then it suddenly became the end of 2024 again, because they had underestimated the work. That doesn’t deserve the beauty prize. I think this corridor undesirable, to say the least,” says Carree.
Hurry up
The councilor has made it clear to the regional director of ProRail that, as far as he is concerned, a fence should be installed along the track as soon as possible. “The regional director understood my concerns and agreed with them. The work is still scheduled for the end of 2024, but as far as we are concerned it will start as soon as possible. The number of collisions may never reach zero, but we must at least make every effort to affect.”
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‘The faster the better’
Mirko Gerrits (Zandvoort Echt Een, ZEE) is happy with the proactive attitude of the councilor. “That’s just nice. The faster that gate, the better. ProRail is already very late with it.”
Zandvoort resident Willem van der Sloot, alias ‘the deer whisperer’, is not yet convinced. “The previous councilors promised everything and ProRail always does that. I will only believe it when I see that the work is about to start. By the way, a deer was hit again early this morning on the Zeeweg. The car involved drove away.” Willem hopes that better fencing will be installed along the Zeeweg as soon as possible. Discussions about this are still ongoing.