If a train hits a wild boar or other animal, traffic is suspended in the affected area, and the driver stops to assess the train’s condition:

If the damage is slight, the animal is removed from the tracks, and the train can safely resume its journey.

If the damage is too severe, we send in specialized crews to check whether the train can remain in operation. Collisions can impair brakes and other critical components at the point of impact.
Assessing and repairing the damage takes time and can cause delays. In some cases, passengers may have to transfer to another train to complete their journey.

Specifications for our trains’ power cars now call for parts with multiple components that drivers can quickly assess and replace as necessary. We’ve also strengthened the skirting that protects the front of locomotives to limit the impact of collisions and make maintenance easier.

Example: Intercité trains now feature bumpers to shield critical brake valves on the front of its BB 26000-class locomotives. If these valves were destroyed in a collision, trains might be immobilized in place for lengthy repairs, causing significant delays on the line. 

Wild animals need freedom of movement to meet their basic needs, and SNCF Réseau is working hard to reduce their risk of collision with passing trains. For new infrastructure, we use environmental studies to identify where animals are likely to cross our lines and how we can accommodate them with special passageways that let them safely through.

• we regularly maintain fencing and reinforce areas where it has been cut, torn away or pushed up by burrowing animals
• we send out specially trained wildlife managers, who monitor our lines and step in when animals make their way onto rail property despite our best efforts
• we install special devices such as Faun’Trap^® and Sanglipass^® to let animals exit rail enclosures safely

• we perform regular and intensive maintenance in areas of dense growth where large animals take shelter on rail property
• we carry out studies to identify high-risk areas and determine the best action to take
• we modify existing under- and overpass structures in high-risk areas to encourage animals to use them. To steer wildlife to these safer passageways we install ballast and gravel, create grass strips, add plantings, and build fences. 
• we limit access to the most dangerous areas for wildlife, such as heavily excavated areas and rock cuts, by installing Strail Grid^® and other devices
• we install fences in areas with the highest accident rates
• we are experimenting with noise deterrents.

A few years ago, our Innovation & Research department started testing noise deterrents to keep large mammals away from railway tracks. These deterrents use either existing sound signals or synthetic, biomimetic sounds generated by passing trains or triggered by trackside transmitters.

Several real-world tests have been conducted in France, in partnership with SNCF Réseau and TER. Dr. Anna Terrade, a bio-acoustics expert, explains the approach in the video below. If the results prove conclusive, the noise deterrents will be deployed across the network once testing is complete.

Wildlife collisions pose a challenge to rail networks around the world. To address this, teams from SNCF Réseau, TER and the DTIPG regularly work with researchers and infrastructure managers in the European IENE network (Infrastructure & Ecology Network Europe).

Topics addressed recently include:

• Research in Sweden on animal behaviour in the presence of trains, including testing of warning devices
• Collaboration between Switzerland and SNCF Réseau to predict wild boar collision zones using AI
• Feedback and field trials in Austria and Norway, including testing an on-board system for SNCF deterrence sounds
• Development of AI-powered warning devices
• Creation of synthetic deterrent sounds by DTIPG
• Work by Japan’s Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) on AI-based wildlife detection and on-board audible warning trials.

We maintain close, ongoing dialogue with farmers, hunting groups, local property owners and government agencies to address the increasing density of wildlife populations—primarily wild boar, deer and burrowing animals that can destabilize tracks by digging underground.

In the areas most at risk, we continually raise awareness among local property owners and contractors working near the tracks. We remind them of safety guidelines, as well as the risks and sanctions they may incur when hunters, dogs, and domestic or farm animals stray onto rail right-of-ways and other land.