Swiss railways uses drones against graffiti sprayers
The Swiss Federal Railways is taking action against graffiti artists.
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss railways uses drones against graffiti sprayers
The Swiss Federal Railways has been using drones in the fight against graffiti sprayers since the beginning of July, having received authorisation from the Federal Office of Civil Aviation to do so.
The company confirmed a report in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, according to which the drones fly up to 30 metres high and are only used in the track area, where unauthorised access is prohibited.
The target is people who trespass on railroad premises at night, namely graffiti artists.
The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) has issued a permit to the Video and Graffiti Unit of the Federal Railways Transport Police for this purpose. This authorises the operation of the Beehive 1 drone system from Sunflower Labs. The drones are automated, but are monitored by humans.
The federal railways is not disclosing how many such drone missions have been flown since the beginning of July and where they have taken place “for police reasons”.
According to the federal railways, damage caused by vandalism costs the company several million francs a year.
More
More
Graffiti removal costs Swiss railways millions
This content was published on
This is an increase compared to the year before (little over CHF5 million) but less than the all-time record in 2015 when the clean-up bill reached CHF6.3 million. According to the company, “the aim of the sprayers is to make their graffiti visible to as many people as possible. This is why railway carriages are…
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Is reforming the Swiss pension system still possible, and if so, how?
Solutions still need to be found to meet the challenge of an ageing population and to improve the pensions of low-paid workers, the majority of whom are women.
This content was published on
The Swiss federal technology institute ETH Zurich is the best university in continental Europe, according to the Times Higher Education ranking.
NGO accuses tobacco industry and Switzerland of human rights violations
This content was published on
The anti-smoking NGO OxySuisse has accused tobacco companies of violating human rights and the Swiss authorities of being complacent.
Swiss national injured in attack on Beirut building
This content was published on
A Swiss national was slightly injured following an attack on a building in Beirut, Swiss media agency Keystone-ATS learned on Tuesday.
Kate Winslet receives Golden Icon award at Zurich Film Festival
This content was published on
British actress Kate Winslet took a dip in Lake Zurich before receiving the Golden Icon Award for lifetime achievement at the Zurich Film Festival.
Swiss President remembers victims of October 7 attack
This content was published on
One year after the attack on Israel by Hamas, Swiss President Viola Amherd remembered the victims and called for the release of all hostages.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.