Train services between Den Bosch and Eindhoven have been cancelled for at least the next week because of damage caused by badgers burrowing under the tracks.

The badgers have dug tunnels under the railway near the village of Esch forcing the closure of the line because of the risk of collapse.

‘Badgers are a protected species and we need permission to act,’ a spokesman for ProRail told local broadcaster Omroep Brabant. ‘So we can’t actually say how long the problem will continue.’

The route is an important north south connection used by 16 passenger trains an hour as well as goods trains. Passengers travelling between Utrecht and Eindhoven or Limburg will now have to use an alternative route or make use of busses.

Earlier this month badgers halted train services between two Frisian towns by burrowing underneath the rails and making them unstable.

That badger sett, near Molkwerum, consists of a network of tunnels with dozens of entrances which may collapse under the weight of a passing train, ProRail said at the time.

ProRail chief executive John Voppen said that with two shutdowns in a week, the track operator is now in emergency talks with the infrastructure ministry. ‘It is in the interests of the traveller and rail companies to have the space to act more quickly,’ he said.