Sometimes, you just need to look at the world from another perspective to understand how intrusive we are. Every year, more than 8,000 trains in France are slowed down or stopped due to a collision with a wild animal. Wild boars, roe deer, foxes, even stray dogs. They cross the railway instinctively, we cut it to get there faster. And the result, too often, is disaster for both.
The company Élan Rail decided to change history with an idea that seems to come out of a science fiction novel, but is already reality: Blue Sentinela system of intelligent balises that combines light and sound For keep animals away from the tracks before the train passes.
In practice, a network of small towers along the railway lines that “feel” the arrival of the convoy, calculate its speed and, a few seconds before the passage, activate a beam of blue light and an acoustic signal. No violent scares, no aggressive noises: just a calibrated alarm, enough to scare the animals away without hurting or stressing them. In the test sections in Normandy and Loire-Atlantiquecollisions decreased by 90%. Nine out of ten accidents simply avoided.
Solar panels, respect for wildlife and zero concrete
Behind this somewhat mysterious name – Blue Sentinel, the “blue guardian” – there is a small masterpiece of sustainable engineering. The balises, the small electronic units installed along the tracks, they work thanks to solar panelsdo not require connections to the electricity grid and do not require invasive works. No excavations, no walls or kilometre-long fences that cut the countryside in two.
Every device is autonomous, individually replaceable And remotely controllableso as to reduce maintenance times and costs.
The SNCF, the French railway network, has already installed them 5 kilometers in the La Londe forestbetween Rouen and Caen.
Since then, fewer interruptions, more trains on time and – most importantly – more live animals.
It’s a small silent revolution: a system that . Maybe one day we won’t see those terrible videos of deer or wild boars hit by a train anymore. Maybe we’ll understand that protect animals it doesn’t mean building walls or networks, but understand their behaviors and work around them. Blue Sentinel proves it can be done: fewer accidents, less damage, less suffering. A solution that works, costs little and, above all, respects life. And for once, technology does not arrive to dominate nature, but to defend it.
