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.
Most Read Swiss Abroad
More
Swiss army and intelligence chiefs ‘have resigned’
Swiss food giant Nestlé to invest millions in Nescafé in Spain
This content was published on
The Swiss multinational is to invest €15 million (CHF14.3 million) in its Nescafé factory, which produces instant coffee and Nescafé Dolce Gusto capsules, in Girona near Barcelona.
This content was published on
Malfunctions led to a worldwide outage of the social media platform X several times on Monday, affecting users in Switzerland and elsewhere.
This content was published on
The Swiss bank UBS was fined €75,000 (CHF71,410), the maximum penalty, in Paris on Monday for moral harassment by its French subsidiary of two whistleblowers.
Nearly 50 wolves killed in eastern Switzerland over five-month period
This content was published on
Wildlife wardens in the eastern canton of Graubünden, together with hunters, shot 48 wolves between September 2024 and January 2025, authorities said on Monday.
Top Swiss court approves appeal against asbestos ruling
This content was published on
The Glarus high court must re-examine an asbestos case, after the Federal Court approved the request for a revision of its decision by the family of Marcel Jann.
Swiss singer Zoë Më unveils song ‘Voyage’ for 2025 Eurovision contest
This content was published on
Singer-songwriter Zoë Më, who will represent Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel, unveiled her ballad Voyage on Monday.
Switzerland’s image at stake in current multilateralism crisis, says Geneva politician
This content was published on
The Swiss government's reaction to the current crisis in multilateralism is not congruent with what is at stake for International Geneva, says the head of the Geneva Government.
This content was published on
At the stroke of 4am on Monday, the street lights went out in Basel's city center for the carnival kick-off, known as Morgenstreich.
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.