VIDEO. In Loire-Atlantique, scarers to avoid collisions between trains and animals

A gunshot. A wild boar's cry. A blast of the horn. And, finally, notes of hunting horn. Here is everything you can hear before the arrival of a train on the SNCF line, between Nantes and Angers.

They propagate sounds of horns, gunshots or hunting horns: scarers have been installed along the SNCF tracks between Oudon and Ancenis (Loire-Atlantique), this summer 2024. Objective: to keep wild animals away from the rails in order to avoid collisions and chain delays.

166 collisions with animals in 2019 compared to 339 in 2023

For the SNCF, the stakes are high: in Pays de la Loire alone, the number of collisions with wild animals increased from 166 in 2019 to 339 in 2023. The number of trains affected is , increased from 1,005 to 1,729, knowing that a collision between a train and an animal occurs, on average, every five trains.