Media centre

Wednesday 24 Jun 2020

Wales and Borders route of Network Rail calls on young people to access safety videos online

Region & Route:

Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Network Rail has teamed up with British Transport Police and train operating companies to deliver a number of railway safety learning opportunities online.

LearnLive, which already works with a number of schools across the country, allows free online access to videos on demand. They also follow and adhere to the latest online safeguarding guidelines.

The videos were developed to appeal to two different age ranges.

Primary ages

Videos can be viewed at: https://learnliveuk.com/rail-safety-primary-schools/

Each video usually begins with a short story followed by a series of short, age appropriate, railway safety video messages that colleagues from all over the railway industry have produced to help keep younger children safe in a railway environment.

Secondary ages

Videos can be viewed at: https://learnliveuk.com/rail-safety-secondary-schools/

Trespass remains a real concern for this age range. Despite the recent stay at home advice, we are still seeing incidents where youths are taking unnecessary risks on the tracks.

Emily Coughlin, Network Rail’s community safety manager for the Wales and Western route, said:

“The dangers on and around the railway tracks is very real. Each year we see far too many people being hurt on the tracks, from minor cuts and scrapes to life-changing injuries. For some, and their families they leave behind, it is even life ending!

“We need to start educating people as young as possible about the dangers on the railway tracks, but we must ensure this information is suitable to the audience it is speaking to. For younger children, all the information we produce, and go around schools talking about, is very suitable for a young audience and does not, in any way, go into graphic detail about injuries and death. We have been able to use age appropriate materials and stories that contain important safety information.

“For those of secondary school ages, we know that trespassing on the tracks is a real issue and our broadcasts for this age range, while not graphic in content, is stronger and more hard-hitting.

“LearnLive is a fantastic platform to engage with younger people, especially during this time, and I would welcome as many people as possible to access the videos.”

LearnLive is the educational partner to the Trespass Improvement Programme, and the hard-hitting  You Vs Train campaign, which has been developed by Network Rail in partnership with the British Transport Police. Primarily targeting young people and their parents, the campaign aims to educate on the devastating and wide-reaching consequences of trespass.