These are two places that we do not have the idea to associate spontaneously: a train station and a veterinary clinic. Yet this is what is happening in Châbons in Isère since Benjamin Dubails has set up his office in the town’s former station. His project was selected as part of the operation “Station Square”
carried by SNCF Gares and Connexion.
Work partly financed by the SNCF
SNCF’s objective is to give a second life to disused stations. In Châbons, the trains still stop but the counters have been closed for several years. So when this veterinarian spoke about this idea – suggested by a farmer in the sector – at the town hall, it quickly won over. The project to set up an animal clinic here has won over the SNCF, which is looking for “services useful to all.”
“I haven’t yet had people drop off the animals for me, but maybe it will happen one day” having fun the veterinarian. This unusual place had a big advantage because being selected by the “Place de la Gare” operation means that the SNCF is responsible for the renovation of the building. With the Region, it has invested 300,000 euros in this project. Benjamin Dubails meanwhile financed the interior work and was able to fit out the premises as he wished.
© Radio France
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Noemie Philippot
“I had other things to restart, a company to buy, new equipment” he details, “it is certain that this big boost that was the restoration of the exterior of the station was a big plus.” From the consultation rooms, we see the rails of the station. You enter this cabinet as you entered the station but the counters have been changed because they were over 30 years old.
An important service for the sector
A place with a story is something extra for the veterinarian. “I have a lot of people who talk to me about the time at the station, when they passed by, who come for consultation and who tell me: here, there was this, here there was that. Everyone in the village is attached to this station.”
Two full-time veterinarians and a third part-time work in this unusual clinic. They take care of cats and dogs, but also animals from farms in the area. A valuable service because Isère lacks rural veterinarians.