Monday 21 Mar 2005
NO MESSIN ON THE RAILWAY
- Region & Route:
-
Scotland’s Railway: Scotland
Network Rail’s national ‘No Messin’ campaign got off on the right track in Scotland today
(21 March), with a rail safety day out for local school kids at Glasgow’s Museum of Transport.
‘No Messin’ is designed to get young kids’ onboard to hit home that ‘messin’ on the railway is dangerous. 1,144 people trespassed on the railway in Scotland in the past twelve months. There were also 504 acts of vandalism with 603 trains struck over the same period.
Ron McAulay, Route Director Scotland said: “We undertake regular programmes in conjunction with the British Transport Police, to combat railway crime, and although we have seen the number of acts of trespass and vandalism fall, there are still too many people getting involved in this type of offence.
“We have developed ‘No Messin’ to engage particularly with young people with the aim of educating them on the dangers of playing on the railway, through activities and competitions.”
The Glasgow day out, which involved local school children from areas where regular, route crime takes place, kick starts a series of events in Scotland to help educate children and young people about safety on the railway and to combat railway offences.
The campaign, which is being rolled out nationwide, has been designed to connect with 10 to 16 year olds – the main culprits of trespass and vandalism.
In Scotland, campaign events will take place around the Easter holidays, a time when increased offences occur. Network Rail is also sponsoring Theatre Workshops in selected towns in Lanarkshire.
Children will be actively encouraged to visit the ‘No Messin’ website
www.no-messin.com where they can interact and learn about safety on the railway and take part in competitions to win i-Pods and ‘No Messin’ clothing.
The ‘No Messin’ campaign will be followed by an annual programme of events, concentrated in problem areas. These will include school visits, after-school programmes and community clubs.
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk
