Story added: 26th April 2021

Foundation shares railway safety campaign to young participants

With the summer approaching, the Community Sports Foundation is helping to spread an important message about rail safety to its young participants.

Figures reveal over 250 incidents a week have been recorded by people taking risks on the railway – taking short-cuts, capturing photos and even ‘train surfing’ – sometimes with tragic consequences. Incidents spike during the summer, and tragically, young people (under 18s) make up a third of all cases.

Potentially life-saving messages from a national campaign called You vs. Train have been shared to young participants on a number of the Foundation’s community programmes.

In-person workshops on the dangers of playing on or near the railway tracks were delivered to participants last year between lockdowns, and a number of online resources have been made readily available to them.

The Foundation’s Community Development Manager, Toby Nickerson, said: “With life not yet returning to normal, and cinemas, bowling alleys and other attractions still not open, the risk is that boredom will cause young people to make bad decisions.

“We’ve been sharing the powerful resources from the You vs. Train campaign at our own after-school sessions, and the young people have been really shocked at what they’ve learnt. It has really caught their attention, and made them alert to the risks posed by the railway.”

The You vs. Train campaign was created by Network Rail and the British Transport Police to help tackle the increasing number of people risking their lives on the railway. Through the EFL Trust, football clubs across the country have been helping to share the important message.