The shunting of wagons containing hazardous substances has been suspended at the Pernis railway yard in Rotterdam. The suspension follows the identification of leaks in the yard’s fire extinguishing facility, said Dutch Infrastructure Manager ProRail. The situation at Pernis will be further investigated with internal and external specialists during this week.

Based on the results from the research, ProRail will make decisions for the short and longer term. “The decisions and their possible impact will be discussed with the parties involved as soon as possible,” indicated the IM. Another ban on shunting hazardous substances was imposed on the location in December 2023. It lasted three days, from 18 to 21 December.

There are no restrictions in place for trains without hazardous substances. The chance of an incident at the railway yard is very small, but if a dangerous situation arises, a properly functioning fire extinguishing system is essential. “Now that we cannot guarantee this, we have decided to stop shunting with hazardous substances for safety reasons,” ProRail explained.

All terminals at Pernis remain accessible, both for trains carrying hazardous and non-hazardous substances. “For trains carrying hazardous substances, this often means additional logistical operations at other locations,” said ProRail. “It concerns about ten trains per day. We can process this at other yards, but it does cause inconvenience for carriers, terminals and shippers. We try to minimise the logistical inconvenience for parties,” concluded the Infrastructure Manager.

This article originally appeared on our sister publication SpoorPro.nl.