The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) gave permission to the rail manager on Thursday evening to repair the track. This was necessary because the badger is a protected species. This weekend, ProRail can provide more information about the duration of the recovery, because the excavation work will show how big the badger sett is.
After the badger burrows have been excavated, the burrows are filled with sand. After this, anti-digging mesh is placed to prevent problems with badgers in the future. If badgers are found during the work, they will be anesthetized and collected.
Burrowing badgers have affected the subsurface of the track, as a result of which ProRail could no longer guarantee the safety of train traffic. This also happened last week at the Frisian Molkwerum. The repair work here seems to take weeks, much longer than in Esch. This is due to the difference in the location of the castle and the railway embankment. The badger also has nowhere else to go in Friesland, which is why caution when removing the animals is of great importance. In Brabant, on the other hand, the animals can find a new habitat in the area themselves, so that they can be removed from the railway embankment more quickly.