In 2023, a departing train in Paris ran over a cat that had escaped from a traveller’s bag, in a case that caused an uproar in France.
Despite requests from the animal’s owners to delay the departure and rescue the animal, the Paris-Bordeaux high-speed TGV train with 800 passengers on board left, slicing Neko the cat in two. France’s national rail operator SNCF insisted at the time that the animal was “not visible.”
After two years of deliberation SNCF has now issued clear rules.
If your pet escapes and falls onto the train tracks in France, a train can be delayed by a maximum of 20 minutes, according to the new protocol, a copy of which was seen by AFP.
The protocol “formalises practices that have always been in place in this type of situation and are applied with common sense and humanity by our staff,” a spokesman for rail infrastructure management unit SNCF Reseau told AFP on Friday.
The new rules were spelled out in a memo to SCNF staff on Thursday.
Once a passenger has reported an animal missing, SNCF staff have 10 minutes to “clear up any doubts” by trying to spot the animal from the platform, according to the new rules.
If the missing pet is spotted, staff have a maximum of 10 minutes “to remove the animal without entering the danger zone” and accessing the tracks.
If the animal still does not emerge, the train is required to proceed at very low speed to give it a final chance to escape.
Neko’s owners sued SNCF but lost on appeal.
After the cat’s death Clement Beaune, the transport minister at the time, had asked the SNCF chief executive to look into “all possible options for changing your internal procedures.”
