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Powered by BT’s Drone SIM solution, drones are rapidly being adopted to enable faster incident response across more than 20,000 miles of railway
BT is enabling the British Transport Police (BTP) to become the first police force to routinely operate national Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drones as part of day-to-day police operations.
The drones, supported by BT’s Drone SIM solution and connected to the EE mobile network, will serve as first responders for incidents taking place across more than 20,000 miles of rail network in the UK.
When an incident is first reported, a drone can be quickly launched from one of seven drone-in-a-box locations across the country and remotely piloted to the site by BTP staff based at the organisation’s London Bridge operations centre. Information gathered can then inform further action from the BTP.
In 2023/2024 there were more than 19,300 trespass incidents across the rail network, equating to one every 30 minutes. Many of these incidents currently require in-person investigation by staff, a method both costly and time-consuming.
“As the first UK police force to routinely operate BVLOS drones as part of day-to-day policing, we are transforming the way we respond to incidents across the rail network. Real-time aerial intelligence enables our teams to assess situations faster, deploy resources more effectively and improve safety for both officers and the public,” said Simon Bachelor, Head of Drones Programme at BTP. “This collaboration with BT demonstrates how innovation can support more efficient policing while helping to minimise disruption for passengers and rail operators.”
In the next two years, BTP plans to expand the number of drone-in-a-box location to 14, further reducing response times for railway incidents.
BT has been exploring mobile network-connected drones for a number of years now, most notably though Project Skyway, a drone ‘superhighway’ for BVLOS flight spanning roughly 165-miles between the Midlands and the Southeast. In 2023, the company had advanced to trialling drone delivery for medical supplies, including the first BVLOS flight overland in the UK.
But despite this progress, largescale BVLOS drone deployments have been slow to materialise, in part due to the complex and slow-moving regulatory environment.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority last year published its Future of Flight: BVLOS roadmap to help address some of these concerns, aiming for routine BVLOS flights taking place by 2027.
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