In an effort to improve safety on and around the railway and the importance of staying safe, East Midland Railway has produced an activity book for primary school children and a pamphlet for adults.

Members of the railway’s Community Rail team will work with Rail Safe Friendly to share the Stay Safe activity book with schools across the East Midlands.

In addition, East Midlands Railway will also team up with Rail Safe Friendly to offer workshops to schools.

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Stuart Heaton came up with the idea for Rail Safe Friendly in March 2023 after an 11-year-old boy was fatally electrocuted after climbing over a fence into a train depot to retrieve his football.

Rail Safe Friendly’s programme is delivered directly to schools through Learn Live’s video channel.

Every year, about 19,000 trespassing incidents are recorded on the railway, which equates to almost one for every mile of track in the country, highlighting the problem and danger it poses a huge problem across the railway network.

In April 2023, there was a 25% increase in the number of people trespassing on the railway network, and a staggering 40% increase in children trespassing.

As well as East Midlands Railway, other train operators have produced books aimed at getting the message to children about the importance of railway safety.

c2c has issued a book titled Mo: A Day on the Train that tells the story of the character Mo taking a train journey to London with his family, and along the way, learning about the best ways to stay safe and enjoy the train journey with the help of station staff and British Transport Police.

Last year, the historic Locomotion Museum at Shildon held a two-day event aimed at promoting railway safety among primary school children, attended by 200 children from primary schools in and around Darlington.