| Re: Another worrying incident of sabotage - now in the Netherlands 15 Sept 2026 Posted by John D at 08:11, 16th September 2026 |     |
I do wonder if the lobbing a metal object over a fence at a railway substation in UK last week, which has caused so many problems for electric trains to Paddington should be deemed sabotage. Unless a fluke happened was clearly going to cause damage.
Vandalism was official version, but that feels wrong because it clearly created a fire (maybe arson ?) causing damage.
I think there is a section in Victorian Railways Act about causing damage that is likely to lead to a fatal accident or endanger a passenger.
| Re: Another worrying incident of sabotage - now in the Netherlands 15 Sept 2026 Posted by stuving at 21:18, 15th September 2026 | |
...and a degree of insider knowledge as to how railways technically work.
Yes, though that only needs to be one person involved in the planning. But the degree of planning and the number of people involved does say "political group" (including workers' ones). We don't seem to be using "splinter group" any more - is there a current equivalent?
| Re: Another worrying incident of sabotage - now in the Netherlands 15 Sept 2026 Posted by Oxonhutch at 21:08, 15th September 2026 | |
...and a degree of insider knowledge as to how railways technically work.
| Re: Another worrying incident of sabotage - now in the Netherlands 15 Sept 2026 Posted by stuving at 19:50, 15th September 2026 | |
From what I've seen of the size of these pipes and cables, they were not intended to cause anything like a derailment. All about activating track circuits, using for example jump leads or pipes "attached" to the rails. I have no information how that attachment might have been done, but some kind of scaffold clamp perhaps?
One specific trick has been to do this near a level crossing, brining the barriers down until the shorting link is removed. Of course that might also be just because that's easy to get to. But doing this during the day and on such a scale, you'd think something was caught on CCTV. But then, if the operation was carefully planned for its effect on the railway, it also was done knowing how to avoid cameras.
| Another worrying incident of sabotage - now in the Netherlands 15 Sept 2026 Posted by eightonedee at 13:54, 15th September 2026 | |
Following the recent incident between Rouen and Caen, there has now been another, apparently larger scale and more organised incident in the Netherlands-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8ly49w9g1edo
I have already seen speculation on-line about the involvement of Russian involvement. Having regard to the veiled threats made by Putin, I am not inclined to dismiss this as paranoia.
