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Tuesday 31 Jul 2018

Rail safety film by Network Rail and Northamptonshire teens tops one million views

Region & Route:

| Eastern

A new safety film by Network Rail based on ideas by pupils at Kingswood Secondary Academy in Corby has been viewed over 1million times in just three weeks.

The film, ‘18’, is aimed at young people and depicts the horrifying and life-changing consequences trespassing on electrified railway can have.

The film has been produced as part of the Midland Main Line Upgrade, which is the biggest investment into the line since the Victorian era, and will see the railway electrified from London to Kettering and Corby via Bedford.

Whilst this upgrade will bring huge benefits to passengers, it adds a new danger to anyone trespassing on the tracks as the new equipment, which will be used to power trains, carries 25,000 volts of electricity- enough to kill anyone coming into contact with it.

As part of the upgrade, Network Rail carried out safety workshops in Northamptonshire schools with over 250 pupils aged 11-16 taking part. The pupils devised scripts and the winning one formed the basis of the film. In just three weeks, the 30 minute film has reached an impressive audience.

Ed Akers, Principle Programme Sponsor at Network Rail, said: “This is a fantastic result. Safety is our top priority and we wanted to find a new way to engage a youth audience with this important safety message about trespassing on electrified railway.

“Electrified lines are always on and anyone coming into contact with them will suffer horrific injury and likely death, so it’s vital people keep safe and stay off the tracks. The pupils have done a great job of highlight this and creating a film which their peers can relate to.”

Alan Johnson, Head of Year 8 at Kingswood Secondary Academy, said: “Kingswood Secondary Academy are extremely proud to be part of such an exciting project for Network Rail and the British Transport Police. This has been a wonderful opportunity for our students and they have hopefully helped to highlight a very important issue whilst raising awareness within the Academy. Many thanks for providing our pupils with the opportunity to be part of the process.”

The film is available to view on YouTube at https://youtu.be/udaS3NDCkk0 and will also be shown to pupils as at further school safety workshops across the country.