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Tuesday 27 Jun 2023

Virtual reality to teach Midlands school children railway safety

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: Central

Virtual reality headsets are to be used in West Midlands schools to teach children about railway safety to reduce the number of trespass incidents.

Latest figures show there were more than 1,700 cases of trespass in the West Midlands* in the last financial year – 250 (14%) of which involved those under the age of 18.

The figures have been released by Network Rail as part of the You vs Train campaign to highlight the dangers of railway trespass this summer.

Today (27 June) is the sixth anniversary of the death of Harrison Ballantyne, who was electrocuted while trying to retrieve a football from the railway.

The 11-year-old was struck by 25,000 volts of electricity after trespassing into a rail freight yard in Northamptonshire which was more than a mile away from his home.

The last day of his life has been turned into a new video campaign to show just how dangerous the railway can be.

Harrison’s mother – Liz Ballantyne - has joined forces with Network Rail and the British Transport Police (BTP) to ask that parents and carers talk to their children about the dangers present on the railway, as a matter of priority, before the school holidays begin.

Ms Ballantyne said: “The summer holidays should be about freedom and I always encouraged Harrison to go out and have adventures. I taught him about “stranger danger” and to be careful around water, but I just hadn’t realised that I needed to teach him about rail safety as there was no railway station near our village. I learnt of its importance too late, but I don’t want others to suffer as I have. Please sit down with your children and loved ones and talk to them about the dangers present around, the railway so they know how to keep themselves safe whilst they are out having fun.” 

As well as the video, Network Rail’s Central route will soon start using the latest technology to educate young people about the dangers.

It has invested £15,000 in virtual reality headsets which will be taken into schools to teach classes about the risks the railway poses.

The move comes after the successful trial of the kit by Network Rail’s community safety teams at schools in the North West region.

• Read more: Virtual reality headsets teach children about railway safety

At present two different scenarios can be shown through the headsets leading up to a dangerous outcome.

This includes being in the train cab with a driver as they approach a trespasser on the track, and then from the perspective of a group of teenagers leading up to one of them touching electrified steel rails on the ground which power trains.

Manjinder Kang, Network Rail’s Central route community safety manager, said: “These headsets have achieved great results in getting through to children in ways normal presentations simply cannot. By virtually transporting students to a potentially dangerous place, all while being in the safety of their classroom, they can immerse themselves in that environment and see in real-time just how devastating the consequences could be. I can’t wait to get these headsets into local schools over the coming months and making a difference to drive down trespass numbers which remain stubbornly high after the pandemic.”

Trespass is a huge problem on the railway with thousands of incidents recorded annually.

Nationally there were 18,517 trespass incidents on the British rail network in the last financial year (2022/23), 20 per cent of which (around 3,700) involved young people under the age of 18.

Though last year saw a drop in the number of trespass incidents involving young people, overall trespass numbers remain too high – almost one for every mile of track in the country - and are yet to drop to the levels recorded in the pre-Covid years.  

For more educational resources on railway safety and information on Network Rail’s community safety programme visit: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/communities/safety-in-the-community/safety-education/