Why railway lines worry me during the summer months

Every summer the British Transport Police visit my daughter’s school. Their main aim is to stop local children playing on and around railway lines. While our local area has benefitted from a new rail station a few years ago, with it comes new dangers for children living nearby.

However the problem is not isolated to the Midlands. It is a national one. According to Network Rail an average of 60 people are killed and many more horribly injured on Britain’s railways each year. Many of these are children. Of the estimated 28 million incidents of trespass on the railway every year, 11 million of these offences are committed by the under 16s.

Millions of children live close to a railway line or make use of trains to travel to school or visit friends, according to Trackoff. All of these children need to understand the dangers and consequences of playing on or misbehaving on the railway, particularly during the summer months when many more children are playing outdoors and not always with adult supervision.

Discussing the dangers

For almost a year after the British Transport Police spoke to my daughter’s class about the dangers of playing near railway lines, she was terrified of getting on a train. Any potential train journey caused huge distress and eventually I had to introduce very short journeys to help her overcome her fears.

Children clearly need to be told of the dangers in a way that has an impact but doesn’t leave them too scared to travel on trains. For us, discussing the dangers at home prior to the police’s visit would have been a better option. Thankfully there are resources available for parents to look at, and nothing beats the opportunity to discuss railway safety while you are actually on a train.

Useful resources

No-messin with the tag line ‘Don’t make the tracks your final destination’ is Network Rail’s website for kids. It is full of information about events taking place locally that kids can take part in instead of hanging around railway lines. There are also videos to watch, wallpapers to download and a collection of real life stories all with a strong rail safety message.

Trackoff is Britain’s rail industry initiative to help educate children and teenagers about safe conduct on the railway. The website includes a wealth of information about railway dangers, railway crime and the key messages children need to know to stay safe. There is also a range of teaching resources available for download, which have all been validated by a panel of teachers and education consultants to suit the English, Welsh and Scottish Curricula.

Kids Zone is an educational website aimed at seven to eleven year olds. It provides information on the rail industry including the history of the railways, trains of the future, how the railways work as well as safety on and around trains. If your child is wary of travelling by train, for whatever reason, the fun zone has some useful activities for younger children that might help them see the positives of rail travel. It’s a resource that worked for us.

Do you have a local railway? Is railway safety something you have thought of discussing with your children?