Drones near railways, roads and motorways in France: permissions, coordination with the infrastructure manager and level crossings

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November 2026latest revision of this guide

• Primary sources: Légifrance, EUR-Lex, Géoportail, DGAC, service-public.fr, EASA.
• Every figure linked to its source, dated in the last chapter.
• Dated updates: you always read the latest version.

Who it is for

• Drone operators and remote pilots, French or foreign, flying near a French railway, road or motorway: bridges and structures, adjacent construction sites, corridor surveys, traffic counts, inspections
• Engineering firms, surveyors and project managers commissioning a survey next to transport infrastructure in France
• Road departments of French municipalities, inter-municipal bodies and départements that must produce the safety assessment of their level crossings or commission a flight on their network
• Contractors and project owners whose site borders a railway or motorway corridor

In pictures

Illustrative photos, published by their authors under free licences.

Contents of the complete guide

1. Railways, roads, motorways: what the texts actually require in 2026 (free extract below)
2. Finding the infrastructure manager and the competent authority
3. Choosing the operating framework along infrastructure
4. Coordinating with the rail infrastructure manager: request, conditions, lead times
5. Roads and motorways: road occupation, traffic orders, closures
6. Level crossings: preparing and running the survey for the safety assessment
7. Flight day beside the tracks: safety, incidents, report
8. Commissioning the mission: what the client requires and checks
9. The decision tree: which step, what lead time
10. Eight templates to copy
11. Sources and dates consulted

Included: 17 checklist items and 13 decision or reference tables.

Introduction

Next to a railway or a motorway, a drone mission rarely fails in the air. It fails before: an infrastructure manager contacted too late, a request that does not say where or when, a crew that finds out the day before that it cannot set foot on the verge, a remote pilot who applies a 30 m rule that has left the texts and forgets the ones that matter. And when it does fail in the air, the consequences go well beyond the mission: a drone on the tracks or in the overhead line stops trains, a drone falling on a live carriageway can cause a crash.

This guide sets out the full method for the operator flying near French transport infrastructure and for the client commissioning the mission. It starts from what the texts say on 5 November 2026, including a clarification that many pages still miss: the 30 m distance from railways and motorways came from the French national standard scenarios, which civil operators can no longer use since 1 January 2026. It then explains who manages which line or road, which operating framework to choose, how to obtain rail coordination, road occupation and traffic orders, how to run the survey of a level crossing for its safety assessment, and how to behave beside the tracks. It ends with a decision tree and eight ready-to-fill templates.

The guide is up to date as of 5 November 2026. The French texts cited were re-read that day on Légifrance and the European texts on EUR-Lex and the EASA website. French texts are only authoritative in French, and French infrastructure managers and authorities work in French: the French terms you will need are given in brackets, and the templates should be sent in French. Read it in order the first time; afterwards, chapter 9 (the decision tree) and the templates are enough for each new mission.

Railways, roads, motorways: what the texts actually require in 2026

The 30 m rule: where it comes from, who it still applies to

You will read everywhere that a drone must not fly within 30 m of a railway without coordinating with its manager, nor within 30 m of a motorway unless it is closed. Both sentences do exist. They sit in the annex to the French order of 3 December 2020 defining the national standard scenarios, in paragraphs 3.6.7 and 3.6.8, among the flight conditions of scenarios S-1, S-2 and S-3:

• the aircraft does not fly at a horizontal distance of less than 30 metres from a motorway or an expressway, except when it is closed to traffic ("neutralisée");
• the aircraft does not fly at a horizontal distance of less than 30 metres from a railway open to rail traffic, except with coordination between the operator and the manager of the line concerned.

Civil operators can no longer use these national scenarios since 1 January 2026: they have given way to the European standard scenarios STS-01 and STS-02 and to specific category authorisations. The scenarios order, in its version of 5 February 2026, now only covers activities excluded from Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, that is State and similar missions (police, customs, rescue, firefighting and so on), which it allows to operate under those conditions until 31 December 2027.

The French order of 3 December 2020 on the use of airspace, known as the "Espace" order, which applies to every civil flight, contains no minimum distance from a railway, a road or a motorway in its version in force on 1 January 2026. Regulation (EU) 2019/947 does not either.

Several official pages, including some prefecture pages, still reproduce the S-3 scenario conditions without saying they no longer apply to civil flights. If someone quotes them to you, do not argue the principle: the caution they express is still expected, and it is the basis on which your agreement with the manager will be built.

What applies instead: four sources of obligations

The disappearance of the written rule does not free the flight. Four sets of obligations, more demanding in practice, replace it.

1. The rules of your operating category towards people. Regulation 2019/947 reasons in terms of uninvolved persons. EASA guidance material (GM1 Article 2(18), as amended by ED Decision 2022/002/R and unchanged in the June 2026 Easy Access Rules) makes two points that matter next to infrastructure: people walking in a street or on a road are generally uninvolved persons; people protected by a shelter, such as a roof, are not considered exposed to direct risks if the drone's maximum take-off mass is below 25 kg. Passengers in a train or a closed car fall into the second case; pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, track workers and road crew stay in the first.

That reading of the guidance says nothing about indirect risk: a drone that falls on a live carriageway, lands on a track or touches an overhead line can cause a crash or stop traffic, even if nobody is hit. That is the risk the manager, the insurer and, in the specific category, the authority will look at.

2. The ground. The remote pilot cannot fly from just anywhere. Article L2242-4 of the French Transport code punishes with six months' imprisonment and a €3,750 fine entering, moving or standing without proper authorisation in parts of the railway or its outbuildings that are not open to the public. Article R421-2 of the Highway code bars pedestrians from motorways. And taking off from a verge, a pavement or a public car park means occupying public land: article L2122-1 of the General code of public property requires a permit for any occupation beyond ordinary public use.

3. Airspace rules. Prohibited, restricted and danger areas, controlled airspace, sensitive sites, night and populated areas (prior declaration to the prefecture) apply beside a track as anywhere else. A city-centre station, an interchange on the edge of a town or a viaduct over an inhabited valley often combine several of them. The drone restrictions map on Géoportail shows airspace restrictions; a railway or motorway does not appear on it as a zone in itself.

4. The manager's conditions. The infrastructure manager does not issue a flight authorisation in the aviation sense. But it controls access to its land, alone decides to close a lane or stop traffic, can require its staff to escort you, and knows risks the remote pilot does not (train times, ongoing works, electrical installations, security zones). As soon as the mission needs it, its written conditions set the date and the method.

The common situations at a glance

Five minutes to classify a site

1. Open the Géoportail restrictions map and note the airspace zones involved.
2. Measure on an aerial view the distance between the flight area, its buffer and the nearest track or live carriageway.
3. Locate the take-off point: private land, public road land, railway corridor, motorway corridor.
4. Identify the line or road: railway line (number, kilometre point, numbered level crossing), road (municipal, departmental, national, motorway under concession or not).
5. Note whether the site is in a built-up area and whether people will be within 150 m.

With these five answers, the decision tree in chapter 9 gives the list of steps and the realistic lead time. Template 1 puts these questions in a table.

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Frequently asked questions

What does “Drones near railways, roads and motorways in France: permissions, coordination with the infrastructure manager and level crossings” contain and how much is it?

For €39 VAT included (€32.50 excl. VAT), you get drones near railways, roads and motorways in France: permissions, coordination with the infrastructure manager and level crossings: 10 chapters online, about 34 printable A4 pages and 8 ready-to-copy templates, to prepare a drone mission along or above a railway, a road or a motorway in France: know what the texts require in 2026 (and what they no longer require), identify the infrastructure manager and the competent traffic authority, choose between the open category, STS and an authorisation, obtain coordination from the rail infrastructure manager, the road occupation permit and the temporary traffic order, run the survey of a level crossing for its road safety assessment, and fly safely beside the tracks and lanes.

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