South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex are testing a new drone system at London Waterloo station designed to catch trespassers on the tracks before they cause major delays.
The drone patrols the skies above the busy station, using thermal imaging cameras to give operators enhanced visibility of potential incidents. This allows railway and emergency services to respond more quickly and limits the need to switch off the power.
Tom Desmond, Operations Director for South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex, said trespass is one of the leading causes of disruption on their network, delaying customers' journeys and costing taxpayers. He said every minute of delay at London Waterloo has a significant impact on the wider network, and that the drone helps them respond more quickly to incidents, enhance safety and keep trains moving along one of the country's more important railway lines.
Trespassing on the railway is illegal in the UK and extremely dangerous. South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex trains run on an electric third rail that is always on, carrying 750 volts of direct current, which can cause severe injuries or death. Because of this, power must be turned off as soon as a trespasser is reported, stopping all trains from running.
Scale of the delays
Between April 2025 and June 2026, trespass and fatalities caused 200,000 minutes of delays to South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex. One trespasser near Clapham Junction caused more than 57 hours of delays last September, while an incident in New Malden in August 2024 caused the equivalent of nine days of delays.
How the drone works
UK firm SkyBound has launched a drone specially designed to monitor the rail line for potential intruders. It carries high-resolution and thermal imaging cameras that feed live footage to an operations centre in Basingstoke. If a potential incident is detected, railway and emergency services can be deployed, reducing the need for ground teams to access the track and limiting the need to switch off the power on the line.
Expansion plans
Waterloo is the first station to test the system, but further drones are set to be rolled out at Clapham Junction, New Malden and Walton-on-Thames in the near future.
Gemma Alcock, Founder and CEO of SkyBound, said London Waterloo is exactly the kind of complex environment where automated drone operations can make a practical difference. She said that from the company's control centre in Woolston, SkyBound is helping turn drone capability into a reliable operational service for critical infrastructure, giving railway teams faster access to visual and thermal information when it matters.
Alcock said the project is about more than a single drone at a single station, and is about building a model for rapid response and more persistent awareness across key rail corridors, so teams can better understand incidents, inspect assets, gather evidence and make informed decisions in high pressure environments. She said the aim is simple: to help keep people safe, reduce disruption and give railway teams better information when it matters most.
