Railway safety | Activities

You’ll need

Device with access to the internet
Scrap paper
Pens or pencils

The railway’s full of hidden dangers. When you trespass on the railway there are serious and catastrophic consequences for you, your loved ones, railway staff and your local community.

We’ve teamed up with Network Rail to share important information about these dangers.

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers

Setting up this session

Before running this activity, watch Harrison’s Story to make sure it’s suitable for your group.
You may want to check with parents and carers and inform them of the session’s content before running this activity, too. If anyone in your group has experienced an emergency on a railway, you may need to reconsider running this activity. Speak to young people (and their parents and carers) first to check that they’re OK to take part.

You vs Train - Harrison’s story

Gather everyone in a circle and introduce this session. Tell everyone content may be very difficult and emotional to engage with, so make sure everyone’s prepared and remind them that they’re able to remove themselves from the session if needed.
Watch Harrison’s Story as a group or read out his story below if you don’t have access to the internet in your meeting place. This video or story may be difficult to watch for some people.
After watching the video or reading Harrison’s story, check in and make sure everyone is okay and happy to carry on.

Harrison’s story

On 27 June 2017, 11-year-old Harrison Ballantyne was out playing with his friends. He didn’t know that morning was the last time he’d see his family, it'd be his last day at school and the last time he would be out with his friends.

Harrison lived in a small village, not served by a railway station. However, they didn’t know there was an international rail freight terminal near their home. Rail freight terminals are for trains carrying essential supplies to our most important industries, such as the things we see in supermarkets, or for taking products in or out of the country. They aren’t for passengers and aren’t like normal train stations.

Harrison and his friends were walking down a bridle path messing about with their football when they accidentally kicked it over an unmarked, waist-high wooden fence.

They spotted a desire path in the undergrowth – a desire path's an informal path trodden by previous walkers – and used it, climbing over the fence after their ball.  

Harrison climbed on top of what looked like an abandoned train wagon to get an elevated view to try to spot the ball. He didn’t even notice the overhead power lines, let alone touch them – but the electricity arced, jumped and instantly killed him, leaving his friends severely traumatised.   

Harrison was hit by 25,000 volts of electricity at a rail freight depot. There was nothing his friends and paramedics could do to save him, and Harrison died at the scene.

Discussing Harrison’s story

Ask everyone, after hearing Harrison’s story, what do they think happened after Harrison tragically died?
After a few people have shared their thoughts, tell everyone that both Network Rail and Harrison’s parents have been part of awareness campaigns, including You vs Train, to help people understand the dangers of railway lines.
Ask the group what they would be more aware of now. People can share what they now know, such as avoiding trespassing or finding out where local railway lines and freight depots are.
Tell everyone that if you step on the railway track, the land next to the track, or any area near the railway that isn’t open to the public, you’re trespassing. It’s dangerous and illegal. Trespassing includes picking up lost property from the tracks, crossing the tracks at any point other than at a level crossing, stepping off a level crossing onto an area where you shouldn’t be, and taking a walk down the side of the railway track.
Remind everyone that high voltage electricity powers the overhead cables and the third rail 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You don’t have to touch them to risk your life – the electricity can arc – just like it did in Harrison’s case.
Explain that the third rail is on the ground and is probably one of the most difficult dangers to see. It’s placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It looks just like an ordinary rail, but it carries 750 volts, which is easily enough to kill you. The DC current that flows through is three times as powerful as your home electricity.

The You vs Train facts search

Before the session, write out or print out “The 15 ‘You vs Train’ railway facts” below and cut them up, so there’s one fact per piece or slip of paper and hide them round the room.
They need to be in easily accessible places, where people can read them easily. Use sticky tape or sticky tack to secure them to the surfaces and remind people not to touch them. They could be stuck to windows, tables, doors, the back of chairs, or even on an adult volunteer’s arm!
Tell everyone that they’ve 10 minutes to find as many facts as possible and read them. They need to try and remember as many facts as possible to help them in the quiz.
Start the activity. Then, when time is up, gather everyone back into a circle.
Ask everyone how many facts they found and what they can remember. See if everyone can share one fact each, depending on how many people there are, or ask for volunteers to share their fact.

The You vs Train quiz

Using the quiz questions and answers below, run a quiz to test everyone’s knowledge. Alternatively, access the You vs Train quiz on a computer, tablet, laptop or mobile device.
You could do this as a whole section, individually, in pairs or in smaller groups.
If you’re playing online, people could play along as a group and vote for the answer. The most popular answer would be chosen. They could also hold up their answer, such as A, B or C, before the answer is selected and revealed at the end. People could also play individually or in pairs on a device, such as a mobile phone.
If you’re playing with pens and paper, use the quiz questions and answers below. Everyone should work in pairs, small groups or individually to write down their answers. You can mark the answers together at the end and see who got the most right.
Once you’ve done the quiz, everyone could create a poster on what they’ve learned about railway safety. You could display them in the local community or ask young people to share them in their school.

Reflection

Railway safety’s very important, but it can also be a difficult topic to learn more about.

Why do people think it might be important for information like this to be shocking, instead of being similar to a gentler or normal advert? Ask everyone to close their eyes. Ask everyone to put their hand up if they have you walked past a safety or warning sign without really checking what it’s all about. Then, with everyone’s hands still up, ask everyone to open their eyes.

Explain that the shock factor might help make us pay attention to what we’re being told, instead of missing, walking past or ignoring the information.

Now ask people to think of one thing that they learned today. It might be already known that the railway’s a dangerous place, but is there anything anyone found out today that they didn’t know about? Ask a few people to share what they learned.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.