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- Caption for photo: Network Rail’s Route Director Jon Wiseman (3rd left) presents a cheque for £15,000 to Frank Banks, Southend United’s Senior Football in the Community Officer (centre) and Southend United’s Che Wilson (3rd right) - Also pictured in photo – Southend United Mascot Sammy the Shrimp (left); Network Rail’s Railway Crime Education Manager Gemma Jennings (2nd left); Network Rail’s Mobile Operations Manager Peter Lucas (2nd right) and Southend United Mascot Elvis J. Eel (right) - There have been more than 20 incidents of railway trespass and vandalism around Southend so far this year including: • 17 January – Children ‘surfing’ on the back of a train approaching Southend East Station • 13 February - A youth trespassing on the tracks at Southend Victoria station and involved in a ‘near-miss’ with an oncoming train • 21 April - Trespassers on the railway grafitti-ing the bridge at Southend Central Station • 22 April - Children trespassing on the tracks at Southend Victoria station and setting off fireworks • 10 June - Reports of six youths on the tracks in Westcliff near Southend Cliffs Pavilion • 16 June - Youths setting fire to trackside hut at Southend Victoria station - Some facts and figures about railway crime: • Trains travel at up to 125mph and can take the length of 20 football pitches to stop • Up to 60 people are killed on the railway each year by taking short cuts or messing around on the tracks - don’t be one of them • Trains are powered by electricity through the rails and overhead lines. It is always switched on and can jump through the air or other objects – if you get too close it can kill - Railway crime costs Network Rail £264 million per year - A railway crime is committed every 90 seconds in peak periods and each year there are an estimated 27 million cases of trespass; 640,000 objects placed on the line; and four million objects thrown at trains