To coincide with Rail Safety Week from today, Monday, 26th June to Sunday, 2nd July, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has released a new version of the children’s song Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

The song is called Keep off the Track and is available to stream on Spotify. It promotes safety on the railway by reminding passengers to keep hold of their belongings when getting on and off of trains.

In the last financial year over 400 people risked their lives by stepping onto potentially live railway tracks to retrieve dropped items, which was an 18% increase from the previous year.

As well as the health and safety dangers, industry data shows that last year over 60 hours of train delays were caused by items being dropped on tracks.

The updated lyrics are intended to serve both as a reminder and a warning that the public should NEVER take safety into their own hands by trying to retrieve items themselves.

If they do drop something onto the track, they should speak to a member of the station staff or visit a designated help point.

The rewritten song encourages passengers to check their ‘Heads [phones], Shoulders [bags], Keys, and Phones’ when getting on and off trains. Network Rail data shows that out of all small electronic items dropped onto railway tracks since 2018, headphones account for 50% of items and mobile phones for 50% and headphones 43%.

The song has been designed to create a lyric that people will remember when travelling and uses children’s voices for added impact. A previous transport campaign that used children’s voices to deliver important messages showed a reduction in incidents.

Each year almost 200 items are dropped onto railway tracks including scooters, pushchair wheels, jackets/coats, and traffic cones. A striking visual that is the album cover for the new song brings these to life along with a chalk body outline associated with crime scenes, that provides a stark reminder of the possible consequences when accessing railway lines.

GTR’s Health, Safety and Security Director, Samantha Facey, said that instances like this are easily avoidable by checking your belongings are secure.

“It’s easy for small items like headphones, mobile phones and bank cards to be dropped onto tracks and the last thing we want is for people to be risking their lives to get things back themselves.

“We’re unfortunately seeing an increase in these types of incidents, so we wanted to do something to grab people’s attention and remind them to keep hold of their belongings when getting on and off trains – and to never try and get a dropped item off the track.

“Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes is a classic nursery rhyme recognised worldwide, so we’ve taken the catchy lyrics and updated them with a serious message to help people be more vigilant with their belongings.”

The Keep off the Track track by Govia Thameslink Railway has been released on Spotify today and can be listened to by clicking here.