Suspected sabotage causes major Netherlands rail disruption

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8ly49w9g1edo

130•choult•1h ago

Comments

scrollaway•49m ago

Little by little, people are realising that Europe is at war. Politicians are trying so hard not to say it because of the implications, but there’s only so long you can keep your head buried in the sand.

We’re under constant attacks from Russia… drones, sabotage, cyberattacks, propaganda campaigns derailing our elections…

I’m sick of it.

embedding-shape•45m ago

Yeah, not sure why not at least being upfront about the possibility is so hard. In Spain we've had train derailments, flocks of people being directed on social media to force themselves across borders, subterfuge deluxe everywhere and what not, yet the government is mostly silent and claim it's all unrelated, but it's hard to not also see the parallels across the continent and reach your own conclusions. But then also, don't wanna fall into some conspiracy theory trap either...

crote•36m ago

Russia isn't the only group interested in doing terrorism in The Netherlands. Recently the Farmers Defense Force and Extinction Rebellion have caused far greater disruption.

Could it be Russia? Obviously. But in my opinion the odds are less than a coin flip.

embedding-shape•34m ago

> Recently the Farmers Defense Force and Extinction Rebellion

Why derail trains though, especially in regards to the latter? Given it's one of the most environmental ways for transportation. Besides, groups like that tend to want to take responsibility, the whole point is to get attention to their groups.

maxboone•30m ago

You're assuming rational goals instead of thinking in radical acts of terrorism.

Throwing paint at a painting does not help the environment, but it does create radical flank effects.

Blocking the highways does not help agriculture, but it does bring their problems in other people's home / discourse.

embedding-shape•25m ago

You're misunderstanding why they do those things in the first place. You're referencing real activities here, how many of those activities you references people refused to take responsibility for doing?

Look at photos from these events you refer to, people are proudly holding banners and signs here, not trying to be anonymous and flee from police and intelligence services.

Have you never participated in political activism yourself, and you have no clue why you'd do those things you cite?

crote•23m ago

Stop, not derail. The saboteurs aren't physically damaging the railways: they are shorting the rails together, causing a fake train to be detected.

But indeed, XR is the least likely subject. They have stopped trains before, but that was a human barricade, and it was a coal train.

maxboone•43m ago

We don't know whether this was Russia, it's just as likely it was the "farmers defence force" or climate activists.

Edit: some context as I'm looking like a Russian shill now, which I understand. Today is the day that the budget gets announced, and the farmer terrorist organization (farmer defence force) have announced actions - and have disrupted highways by setting bales of hay on fire, and all the disruptions happened where farmer concentrations are high.

Regardless, the situation is dire, and probably either the tankies or terror farmers are being helped by Russian destabilizing forces, it's too early to call this disruption an action from the FSB.

mschuster91•41m ago

if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

Russia started with the hybrid war psyops shit, they don't get to complain about false accusations.

maxboone•39m ago

I'm not defending Russia, it's just that the farmers terrorist organisation has announced major disruptions today and has also set hay bales on fire to shut down highways.

For context: it's "Prinsjesdag" in the Netherlands which is when the budget is announced, and there are major changes to agriculture subsidies.

on_the_train•38m ago

We've had a bunch of these acts of terrorism in Germany in the recent years. Mostly power, but also train and industrial targets. They all came from the same source, which is very much not Russian.

j-pb•41m ago

Ah yes, climate activists are widely known for hating public transport especially trains.

jeltz•42m ago

What implications? Why wouldn't they want an, in this case real, external enemy they could use to distract the people from their own failures?

stingraycharles•41m ago

Perhaps the external enemy being able to do these things is, in fact, their own failure in a way.

jeltz•39m ago

Not really, I do not buy that. Ukrainian intelligence can sabotage train tracks deep within Belarus and Russia. And given how convient it would be to blame Russia here I wonder why they do not.

crote•40m ago

It is indeed possible Russia is behind it, but considering a domestic farmers' terror group has told its followers to cause disruption today (as it is a politically-significant day), and those are definitely disrupting highways, chances are good they are also responsible for the railway disruptions.

And if this is supposed to be war, then by European standards it is incredibly mild.

dividedbyzero•26m ago

And Russia is winning, they already have neutralized if not subjugated the US, but most of Europe is also heading towards that outcome, and fast. Russia is not this near omnipotent 5D chess mastermind behind all of the scenes in all of politics all across the West, but they are terrifyingly good at exploiting existing trends and influencing trajectories just so and they have been at it with great continuity over many decades. It's starting to really pay off. At this point, it's hard to imagine how the next German federal government could be anything else than either a completely dead-on-arrival coalition of polar opposites that only barely hangs on to keep the AfD out of government but will be unable to do anything at all, or an extremely Russia-friendly government the AfD is part of if not leads that is pretty much certain to continue within the EU what Trump started within NATO. Both outcomes serve Russia well, and the establishment has pretty much handed them that opportunity without meaningful resistance.

apt-get•47m ago

Just days after a similar (criminal) incident causing a train to derail in France: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/09/12/french-p...

"close to Renault's factory in the town of Cléon", which is now preparing to start manufacturing drones for the French military, in collaboration with Ukrainian military-industrial groups.

walrus01•27m ago

Most consumers know Renault as an ordinary car manufacturer but also worth mentioning it's a major manufacturer of armored vehicles for the French armed forces.

puttycat•14m ago

Yes. And in combination it completely rules out the suggestion that the Netherlands attack is some kind of local activist protest. (The France attack resulted in several grave injuries and could have just as easily resulted in dozens of deaths.)

sorenjan•40m ago

A Russian warship fired flares at a Danish military helicopter in international waters in the Baltic sea too.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwn8mjl31p5yo

dakolli•37m ago

What does this have to do with this.. .. The reflexive urge to blame everything on Russia or China on this site (and others) is really funny, ya'll are trained sheep.

bilekas•36m ago

They have a habit of being involved. It's not exactly plucked out of thin air!

cyclopeanutopia•33m ago

Russia is involved in many acts of sabotage in Europe over past 2 or 3 years, so this is a very natural first guess for us, European citizens. They also started increasing their activity recently.

ImHereToVote•28m ago

Like what? Any confirmed acts?

huurtehoog•22m ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_sabotage_operations_in...

Kim_Bruning•39m ago

So today's the yearly presentation of the new budget, with protests expected in several places. Whether this sabotage campaign is (part of a) misguided protest action or something else is yet to be determined.

https://nos.nl/liveblog/2631038-nog-steeds-nieuwe-sabotageac... (Use google translate to read)

qwertox•35m ago

https://nos-nl.translate.goog/liveblog/2631038-hooibalen-in-...

teekert•17m ago

"Radical Farmer Leaders" are mentioned as stimulating these actions today.

Vinnl•18m ago

That does mean that I would not automatically jump to conclusions about Russia or war or whatever; since much of national public policy is presented today, it's also a popular day to express disagreement, and apparently some farmers had already announced they would be doing so today.

(I'd assume the BBC reporter to be aware that Prinsjesdag is today, and that they'd mention that fact in this article, but apparently not.)

barrenko•37m ago

As a european, for the love of god, can we address any single of our concerns by either the national or the supranational government?

It seems as if one ambiguates the other.

HPsquared•31m ago

It's useful because if an issue is difficult, both levels can disavow responsibility.

HSO•25m ago

in german there is a word for this

Zuständigkeitspingpong

competence table tennis

myself248•17m ago

> in german there is a word for this

I am not surprised.

> competence table tennis

Magnificent!

ramblerman•6m ago

Sry to be pedantic (it is german after all) but,

"responsibility table tennis" would be a better fit.

Competence in english translates to the skill side of the word

raverbashing•19m ago

No, it seems governments can only ignore the concerns then complain the 'alt-right' parties get voted

HelloUsername•35m ago

Might be related to today's yearly 'Prinsjesdag' in the Netherlands:

The day on which the reigning monarch of the Netherlands addresses a joint session of the States-General of the Netherlands (consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives) to give the Speech from the Throne (Dutch: Troonrede), similar to the annual State of the Union in the United States or the British State Opening of Parliament. This speech sets out the main features of government policy for the coming parliamentary session.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinsjesdag

alienbaby•20m ago

maybe, but it's a step or two up from blocking roads?

AmericanOP•32m ago

Putin’s exit narrative requires escalation. Defeat vs Ukraine is a pathetic wound- “we would have won if it weren’t for.. europe” is preferable to narcissistic permanent victimhood.

Solovyov propaganda is pure nuclear revenge fantasy: https://youtu.be/dA4RP3uID6Q?is=ApmFQtgZvY7mWajP

walrus01•31m ago

And on the same day that a (very likely Russian) UAV had to be shot down in Lithuanian air space.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjx2zgk7edlzo

assimpleaspossi•29m ago

I don't understand. What does this have to do with HN, the typical topics, and the typical users who come here?

rebolek•28m ago

By the upvotes - a lot.

hagbard_c•16m ago

Yes, and that's one of the reasons politics - which this is - used to be shunned on this site. It is like catnip for those who have an opinion - whether agreeing or disagreeing - on the subject and quickly turns into a mud fight. In combination with the down-voting system on HN this gives rise to a strong and unhelpful herd mentality where those with itchy down-vote fingers quickly make opinions outside of their desired narrative fade to grey. Unfortunately this 'no politics' rule has never been free from bias even before the rise of The Orange Man and seems to have been dropped off the radar ever since. This only serves to increase the level of polarisation, the bitter fruits of which are ripe for the picking right here in this thread.

n4r9•22m ago

International politics is intellectually stimulating.

CalRobert•18m ago

Nerds like trains. A fair few of us live in NL too.

pbkompasz•16m ago

NicoJuicy•29m ago

And Putin has trump in his pocket. Some oligarch just had to pay a couple of big bucks for his sons wedding...

https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-jr-wedding-b...

amelius•25m ago

Makes you think. If Russia can get a bunch of teenagers to put pipes on the railway tracks or fly some drones near an airport, then so can AI.

raverbashing•19m ago

It's not a "bunch of teenagers", a regular pipe won't cause a train to derail, one would need heavy machinery to move that rail in France

Bootvis•13m ago

Nothing was derailed, they put pipes on the rails that tricked the system into believing there was a train on the track, shutting it down

XorNot•6m ago

This is very much why I find most people's AI doom scenarios trite.

Humans are useful, easily manipulated operatives in the medium AIs are conversant in and we already have evidence of agents doing exactly this in arguing for PR requests (likely with prompting by an operator but still).

bamboozled•24m ago

The little green men

antonmks•16m ago

I am not saying that Russia was behind this, but 99% likely.

nelox•15m ago

I would be surprised if it wasn’t by Russia. Russian infrastructure is being systematically destroyed by Ukraine with funding, training, intelligence and materiel from Europe. This is an attempt to discourage European support by disrupting Europeans.

kaon_2•9m ago

Ockham's razor may be? Big protests are common on Prinsjesdag, particularly when sensitive decisions or policies are made. A local protest organisation is therefore significantly more likely than an organized foreign sabotage. If I were Putin and had foreign agents in the Netherlands I certainly wouldn't expose them this physically.

pprotas•7m ago

Likely organized by farmer protest groups (FDF for example) to protest against emission restriction regulation. They are known for their dangerous stunts, including driving their tractors on the highway and spraying manure on government buildings. These actions are tolerated by the Dutch police, which willingly and purposefully refuses to punish these acts.

sedan_baklazhan•14m ago

Browsing through comments I'm not really surprised. It seems like Russia is everything Europeans think about daily. Guys, your railroads used to work very bad all the way along. Just fix them at last, and ensure safety.

birdsongs•3m ago

> It seems like Russia is everything Europeans think about daily.

Brilliant reply. Maybe if they stop attacking half of Europe, we'll stop thinking about them daily.

sedan_baklazhan•2m ago

Well. Maybe Europe should stop attacking Russia then, come to think of it. Oh well, that is completely different right?

bsoqk•10m ago

Putin must be really happy - whatever happens in Europe, he's blamed for it, making him look omnipotent. Most countries would love to have that kind of power.

kaon_2•3m ago

Sad to see so many people here in the comments jump the gun and think of Russia.

Some local context: Today is "prinsjesdag" when the budget is announced. Protests are common, particularly when sensitive decisions are made. There are multiple organized protest movements in the country that have used physical force in the past and some of them had announced protests for today.

Could it be Russia? Yes. But local protests seem significantly more likely. Moreover, if I were Putin I wouldn't expose my foreign agents this physically. I would use them in much more insidious ways such as actually starting or supporting these protest movements. In a similar vein: Could any shooting in the US be caused by foreign agents? Maybe. But usually there is a much simpler explanation; guns and bitterness.

cynicalsecurity•2m ago

Europeans don't realise how close war is to their homes. Russia won't stop unless it's stopped.

I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea

Suspected sabotage causes major Netherlands rail disruption

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Suspected sabotage causes major Netherlands rail disruption

Comments

I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea

Suspected sabotage causes major Netherlands rail disruption

Alternatives to MinIO for single-node local S3

iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27

OpenArm: An open-source 7DOF humanoid arm

How much of F-Droid is LLM generated?

4,400-Year-Old Tomb of Egyptian Judge Found at Saqqara with Colors on Walls

A rough guide for going back to the Moon

Pion, an agent designed to run any company autonomously

Linux from Scratch

XCancel service is suspended until further notice

CSS-Tricks in Limbo

Lingo.dev (YC F24) is hiring a senior content engineer (Remote, worldwide)

The k-server conjecture is true

Charts built for Chat

Show HN: Redis City – Explore how Redis works in an interactive 3D model

OpenAI bots knew about the RubyGems caching vulnerability

Dropping eBPF CPU Cost by About 90% with Memoization (Not AI Gen)

A beginning for mathematics

Distributed Systems Classics (2017)

Compressing a flag to 11 bits

High-performance garbage collection for C++

Forgotten Woodlands

Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

Let's make quality the norm again

Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)

Show HN: Macros with a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Pedalboard in macOS

Principles for Fast Tokio Applications

Pythoncall.jl – Python and Julia in Harmony

People who can't picture anything are rewriting the science of imagination