Leading the movement of rail safety in schools

"It’s imperative that every single child has the knowledge to keep themselves safe. Safety around the railways needs to be seen as important as road, water and online safety.”

Those are the words of Liz Ballantyne who found out in the worst way possible about the dangers of the railway. Her son Harrison was 11 years old when he strayed into a rail freight depot to retrieve a lost football. He climbed on to a stationary freight wagon to get his ball back and, although he didn’t touch the overhead power cables, he died when he received a fatal electric shock.

“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,” added Liz. “I learnt of its importance too late, but I don’t want others to suffer as I have.”

Stuart Heaton is passionate about ensuring that that is the case. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Rail Safe Friendly, an education programme which, through schools, teaches young people about the dangers of trespassing on the UK’s railways in order to raise awareness which in turn is preventing injuries and ultimately saving lives.

“What happened to Harrison is incredibly sad as he just hadn’t understood the dangers of the railway,” said Stuart. “The rail depot was less than a mile from where they lived yet neither Harrison or his mum were aware the place existed and the dangers there were. The only way we can solve this is by ensuring that every child gets some form of rail safety education wherever they are in the country. Since that tragic day, Liz has been an incredibly brave woman to go public about what happened, and she is driven by a passion to make sure no other family suffers like hers have. That spurs me on with this programme, which is also giving Liz some comfort that Harrison’s story is saving lives.”

A new collaboration, Rail Safe Friendly is a new addition to the Learn Live Channel, which since 2019, has broadcast Network Rail and other safety content directly to more than 20 million young people in more than 11,500 schools across the UK. This work has been undertaken in collaboration with the Trespass Improvement Team at Network Rail.

Launched in March 2023, Rail Safe Friendly has already delivered Network Rail’s video safety content directly to more than 3,000 schools in England and Scotland, with so far 50 industry partners, including ScotRail, Freightliner, Story Contracting, Keltbray and SPL Powerlines signed up to support the scheme.

The programme has also recently added the Office of Rail and Road and RSSB as gold partners, with the programme expected to launch in Wales in Spring 2024.

“It’s hard to visualise the stats of how many people we have reached, but I was always confident in its ability,” Stuart said. “Important to me has been experiencing the impact it has been having. I’ve been in classrooms where young people have been watching and they are shocked into silence which means it is really hitting home. The 15-minute footage, which is ready made for teachers to press play, or join a live broadcast, is changing behaviours and saving lives.

“It’s been a very inspiring six months since the launch. The 50 companies involved so far include a mix of train and freight operators, contractors, supply chain, manufacturers, and consultants and we’ve even got lawyers on board. It is really heartening to have such a diverse mix of companies wanting a stake in this and being involved in the journey, but there is always room for a lot more to play a part in rail safety.

“Pretty much every company I’ve met has a story to tell about an incident that they have been involved in, or have someone in their team who has been a first responder to a tragic incident and that scars the soul for people who have seen that. To know there is an educational programme that hopefully will reduce that risk is something companies across the rail industry can attach themselves to and what has been great to see is the conversations that are taking place between the various organisations sharing best practice.”

The Rail Safe Friendly broadcasts are delivered through live or on-demand content digitally into classrooms and assembly halls via the Learn Live channel. The channel also has a moderated, GDPR compliant live chat facility to promote interaction and involvement from the schools and colleges taking part in Rail Safe Friendly. There are three levels to the Rail Safe Friendly programme for schools to achieve: Bronze, Silver and Gold

“I created Rail Safe Friendly as a chance for schools and the rail industry to join together and collaborate in gaining an understanding of the dangers of the railway, with schools able to accredit themselves with bronze, silver or gold, and the industry to get involved in four levels, which mainly depends on the number of schools they wish to reach through our channel,” said Stuart.

“What has been created is a vehicle and collateral to share with local schools with the safety message not just getting to pupils, but also among colleagues in the rail industry.

“Rail organisations are joining because they want to make a difference, they want to join the group with high-profile organisations that have already signed up, and there is also the social value to be gained by the safety talks. Thanks to them we are reaching more and more schools. In addition to that, having the ability to contact schools about safety gives the industry the opportunity to develop relationships with schools and talk about the brilliant, diverse career options within rail.”

The programme comes at an important time for the industry. In spite of a lot of hard work in raising awareness of the dangers of the railway, there are still thousands of trespass incidents across Network Rail’s Regions every year. In England, Wales and Scotland in the last financial year there were 18,517 reported incidents of which 20 per cent involved young people under the age of 18. However, in hotspot areas where the Rail Safe Friendly programme has been taking place, research has found that between June 2022 and June 2023 there was a 37 per cent decrease in incidents involving teenagers.

“It shows it is working,” added Stuart. “But I do think trespass is bigger than the overall statistics show as there will be many cases that go unreported. I realise there is still a lot of work to do and when I created Rail Safe Friendly I always saw it as a five-year programme and one that needed to be sustainable within education, year on year, until the safety message is fully engrained in young people’s mindsets. “If people knew the dangers, they wouldn’t be taking the risks trackside or at depots. My target for the future is zero trespass with every school having some form of rail safety education, but that will only be achieved with the support of the rail industry. Signs and fences trackside might help to a point, but what is really needed is education, with all young people and their parents understanding the dangers.

“As Harrison’s mum Liz has said ‘every child deserves rail safety education’. It is a life skill in the same way that road and water safety is, so every child deserves to know the dangers as well as every parent. When you tell someone that something is dangerous, they make a different decision, as do their friends. I firmly believe, as does Liz, that if Harrison had seen one of our broadcasts, he would have recognised the dangers posed at that depot and by the overhead lines and trains, told his friends they had to get out of there and that they could always buy a new football.

Rail Safe Friendly is an opportunity for us all to come together to ensure what happened to Harrison doesn’t happen again.”

Credit Rail Director Magazine