The Italian State Railways group and the National Agency for Civil Aviation (ENAC) have signed a memorandum of understanding to promote strategic collaboration in the deployment of drones for the monitoring of rail and road infrastructure in Italy. The three-year agreement aims to exploit the potential of the of flights even in BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) to fly over otherwise difficult to navigate network sections monitor, scan risk areas and collect data in time real. Research projects will be developed, services tested and applications related to the use of drones, planned training courses training, plan flight activities and define Safety and certification procedures for the use of drones increasingly integrated into daily operations.

The implementation of the agreement will be ensured through specific project agreements, which will define responsibilities, economic and human resources, operating methods and processing times realization. To support this process, a technical table made up of representatives of the clubs operating operations of the FS group (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, Trenitalia, ANAS, FS Security, FS Logistix, Busitalia, Ferrovie del Sud Est, Ferservizi and FS Sistemi Urbani) with the task of coordinating the initiatives, sharing expertise and identifying the main use cases.

Among the priorities of the technical table are the experimentation of innovative solutions for the maintenance of infrastructure and trains, the adoption of integrated approaches to the emergency management, the introduction of advanced tools to monitoring of stations and passenger flows during events of great appeal and the evaluation of new ways to make logistics and operational processes more efficient. Particular attention will also be paid to the use of drones in the security field, helping to strengthen synergies between the various technologies already in use by FS Security for the protection of infrastructure, travellers and staff.