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Thursday 19 Sep 2013

Music artists take unique sound test to support new rail safety campaign

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

UK rapper Wretch 32 and spoken word performer George the Poet have put their hearing to the test in a unique experiment as part of a new Network Rail safety campaign aimed at young men called Track Tests

In the last five years 22 people* have lost their lives while trespassing on the railway in Scotland, with 270 trespass fatalities across Britain as a whole.

In 2012/13 the Scottish network has seen one trespasser fatality injured, while a further 50 near-misses have been reported where trains have almost struck people on the line. Across Britain, a total of 41 trespassers were killed in 2012/13.

Nationwide, 16-24 year old males make up four out of 10 fatalities in Britain, with incidents occurring both at stations and along the railway.

A survey for Track Tests reveals that despite most agreeing it’s dangerous to trespass on the tracks, a third of people (32%) think they would hear a train in time to move out of the way. This increases to more than half (51%) of 16-24 years old males.

The Track Tests video shows how Wretch 32 and George the Poet battle to make a split second decision, relying only on their hearing to work out which direction a train is coming from as it travels towards them at 80mph in the dark.

In this instance of course, it’s not a real train. The artists stand in a warehouse where a mocked-up railway with a ‘spoke’ of tracks has been built. Sound engineers have created a 360 degree surround-sound system to recreate the noise of an approaching train with other distracting noises such as wind and traffic.

In the test, Wretch and George each stand in the middle of the spoke and, when they are sure which direction the sound is coming from, they select a corresponding button. Only then do they find out if they are right or wrong and if they selected in enough time.

Wretch 32 said: I’ve got 97% hearing, so should have a good idea of where sound is coming from. As soon as I stepped into the Track Test simulator and the normal sounds you’d expect to hear when you’re on the tracks, like traffic noise, are added, I didn’t make it across in time. No matter how much confidence you’ve got in your hearing and speed, when you’re in the dark and a train is coming towards you at 80mph, confidence is not enough to get you across safely.”

Robin Gisby, Network Rail managing director, network operations, said: “Too many people think they would hear a train in time to move clear - tragically we know this isn’t the case. The sound of a train approaching is much quieter than you would imagine with the wheels pushing noise out sidewards rather than forwards and distorting what you hear. Trespass is just not a risk worth taking and so we hope that Wretch and George can help get across this message and reduce the number of incidents we see each year.”

Dr Bruno Fazenda, from the Acoustics Research Centre, University of Salford said: “It is very easy to become disoriented as sound from the tracks or nearby can be reflected off fences and buildings and cause an illusion that the train is approaching from the wrong direction. This can be intensified if you’ve been exposed to loud music in a bar or nightclub as your hearing system will adapt in an attempt to protect you. Sounds become muffled and this is often accompanied by ringing in the ears, which can last hours after exposure. Whether your senses are dulled or not, by the time your brain puts all the clues together, it’s likely that the train will be too close for you to move away safely.”

To complement Track Tests, British Transport Police has also launched Operation Avert, which will target 64 key locations across Britain over the next six weeks to reduce trespass with increased patrols, increased community engagement and real time monitoring of CCTV at hotspots.

Detective Chief Superintendent Miles Flood from British Transport Police said: “Billions of pounds have been invested to give us a fast, modern rail network. Trains are very fast and often surprisingly silent, particularly if you aren’t paying attention. We spend thousands of police hours combating trespass to keep people safe and minimise disruption to the network. If this campaign can prevent one BTP officer having to tell someone that their loved one has been killed or maimed, it will be worth it.”