'Drones in a box' deployed to find rail trespassers
BBCTrespassers on a railway are being tracked by drones controlled from a room in London.
The drones are stored in boxes by the side of tracks and launched when there is a report of trespassing.
Network Rail said more than 1,100 incidents have been reported in the last year, leading to about 2,500 hours of delays for passengers.
The drones in Leicester are the first of their kind in the East Midlands and are being deployed in an area where trespassing has been reported previously.
The British Transport Police (BTP) said it deals with a range of trespassers at a junction in the city.
Simon Bachelor, who leads the BTP's drones programme, said: "Some will say that drones aren't going to stop people trespassing on the railway, and they'd be entirely correct.
"What we can do is, where there are reported trespass incidents, we can get there first.
"We can search or sweep along the railway line to make sure that there's nobody there.
"Anything we can do to make the railway safer, that's our focus."
Network Rail already uses drones with pilots on the scene to find trespassers.
Working with BTP's 'drones in a box', they hope to find trespassers quicker and without putting staff at risk.
"For us, this is an absolute game-changer," said Mark Budden, East Midlands route director at Network Rail.
"Traditionally, we would have sent somebody out not entirely sure where the incident was.
"They would be looking around, maybe even stuck in traffic before they got there, but this is instant for us."
Listen to BBC Radio Leicester on Sounds and follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.
