Trespassers who disrupt trains to be tracked by new British Transport Police and Network Rail drones
Remotely-operated craft will also monitor crowds at large events like the Commonwealth Games
Trespassers who disrupt trains on Scottish rail lines are to be tracked by new drones being deployed by British Transport Police (BTP) and Network Rail.
The BTP’s ”visual line of sight” drones are designed to cut delays by speeding up response to incidents, which also include spotting obstacles blocking routes during bad weather such as trees and trampolines.
BTP is basing new mobile drone teams in Edinburgh and Glasgow which will be moved by police car to incidents by specially-trained officers.
The drones, which cost £10,000 each, will also be used to monitor crowds at large events such as the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July.
Meanwhile, Network Rail, which is responsible for tracks, has positioned a more sophisticated £200,000 “beyond line of sight” drone at Glasgow Central Station, which is launched by remote control to cover a 1.2-mile area around Scotland’s busiest rail hub.
BTP, which has some 50 drones in England, had hoped to start trials north of the Border six years ago.
Chief Superintendent Lorna McEwan, BTP’s Scotland commander, said: “It’s really exciting for us because I never thought we were going to get to this stage.”
Officially launching the new equipment at the Cadder rail depot on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line near Bishopbriggs on Wednesday, she said: ”The drones give us a really good situational awareness for disruption calls to hopefully keep a safer network for people, clear lines quickly and keep all the trains running.
“If there are people there [on tracks] we can get eyes on them quickly and get officers onto the scene.
“It also gives us a proactive capability for important events like the Commonwealth Games. We can look at all the sites in advance and see what the crowd flows look like.”
BTP Inspector Chris Fells, the force’s lead drones officer, said: “Our drones are deployable to many different types of incidents. Trespassers are our bread and butter, as well as sweeping areas of track looking for people who may be out there and vulnerable.
“But more importantly, sometimes it’s just being able to say that there is nobody there so we can get trains operational as quickly as possible.
“It alleviates a lot of issues with officers having to go trackside and the amount of resources we have to apply to an incident.
“The fewer resources we can send to one job means there’s more police to deal with other incidents across the railways, and that’s the biggest key for us with these drones.”
Leigh Gribbon, a route performance improvement manager at Network Rail, said: “Our drone is different from BTP’s as it’s fixed in place at Glasgow Central and is deployed remotely by staff in our control room.
“It’s an important step forward in how we manage the network. It means we will be able to get eyes on incidents in minutes to get the railway running quicker and more efficiently.
“We are using innovation to tackle day-to-day challenges, whether it is managing incidents efficiently, improving response times or ultimately reducing disruption for passengers.”
BTP plans to increase the number of drones across Britain that can be launched remotely - like Network Rail’s - from five to 12 by the end of the year.