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Thursday 9 Apr 2015

Art project seeks to promote rail safety at Tyne Yard rail depot

Region & Route:

A rail depot which has been the centre of tragic events is being targeted for a facelift with a difference by Network Rail.

Tyne Yard is the other side of the A1 from the Angel of the north in Lamesley, Gateshead and there are frequent reports of trespass by young people, many of whom were painting graffiti on bridges.  In June last year a teenager was badly burned and his friend was also injured by the overhead line equipment after they climbed on top of a wagon.

Now Network Rail has teamed up with four artists from Urban Art Yard to create a series of pieces of street art on the bridges.

Vicki Beadle, community safety manager for Network Rail, explained: “Gary Bowron is well-known and respected among young people for his artwork.  The idea is that as well as making the area more visually appealing, we deter future graffiti because young people are less likely to tag over another artists work.  This means they won’t need to trespass onto the site and won’t put themselves in danger.  We’ve taken the opportunity to include safety messages within the work, so we are promoting our safety campaign for young people Rail Life on the public-facing walls and our own internal safety campaign on the walls which face into the site.”

Dougy Blakeley is programme manager for Network Rail’s High Output team which uses long factory trains to replace track and ballast.  By using this specialist equipment the team can complete long sections of upgrade work in a single night when trains aren’t running.  Some of these trains are stored, serviced and loaded with new components at Tyne Yard.  Dougy explained: “We were all horrified by the accident last year and this project gave us the opportunity to make a positive improvement to the depot and to reinforce how important staying safe is to everyone – whether you are a member of the public or a member of railway staff.  We are working closely with British Transport Police to make sure that we do all we can to warn people of the dangers of unauthorised access to any part of the railway and to prevent people getting onto the yard wherever possible.”

Inspector Brian Buddo from British Transport Police said, “This is a great project and I hope that it will raise awareness of the dangers of the railways and reinforce the safety message to young people and the local community. “The last thing we want to see is a repeat of the tragic incident which took place at the depot last year and with the school Easter holidays now upon us, we are asking parents and guardians to reiterate the dangers to their children.” Gary Bowron added: “This is a fantastic project to work that shows where street art can not only improve the local environment but also help to improve safety.  We have really enjoyed working with Network Rail to raise awareness of these important issues.”

Notes

In the Newcastle Station, Tyne Yard and Tyne Dock area there were six reports of trespass in 2013/14 and five in 2014/15.  However a lot of these incidents go unreported.