(ANSA) - BERLIN, DECEMBER 12 - The future of Deutsche Bahn will not only run on the railways: the German group aims to integrate, over the years to come, the rail with the use of air-taxis. The company announced today in Berlin the alliance with the British Skyports, to focus on drones. Skyports manages landing fields for new technology aircraft and promotes their use in transport. The first step will be the verification of freight transport through drones: in a pilot project, DB and Skyports want to test if the drones can be "faster, more flexible and more efficient", reads the German railways website.

Among the long-term objectives, there is also the use of drones to transporting people, the integration of the railway network, even to guarantee rapid movements from one station to another.

"The technology of drones develops quickly. We want to take advantage of this. In collaboration with Skyports we want to probe if we can participate in this dynamic development for the transport of goods and passengers," said Samina Jeschke, head of the group as for digitization and technology. (ANSA).