Dutch rail infrastructure manager ProRail and former Betuweroute manager KeyRail have been fined a total of 400,000 Euros over a fire caused by a collision involving two goods trains carrying dangerous substances. 

A court in The Hague imposed the fines for an incident at the Kijfhoek goods yard at Zwijndrecht in January 2011. Nobody was hurt but the Dutch authorities have since been keen to learn any safety lessons that could help prevent such occurrences in the future.

Detailed investigations

ProRail, which is responsible for the construction, maintenance, management and security of the country’s rail network, said it ‘regretted deeply’ the incident, and that detailed investigations had taken place. It was fined 250,000 Euros, including 100,000 Euros conditionally.

KeyRail, which has been fined 150,000 Euros, was the then infrastructure manager for the Dutch part of the Betuweroute, a 73-kilometre stretch of the Rhine-Alpine Network Corridor, one of Europe’s busiest freight routes. The company became part of ProRail in 2015 when ProRail took over management of the Betuweroute.

The court said the fines varied because one of the companies, ProRail, had already previously committed similar offences. ProRail said it would ‘study the ruling’.