Groundbreaking offer to steer young people in Greater Manchester away from railway danger
22% of 2,098 trespass incidents across the North West involved under-18s
A Manchester charity has come up with a groundbreaking offer to try and stop young people from causing potentially serious accidents on railway tracks.
A Foundation 92 bus will travel to key stations across the region - including in Manchester, Macclesfield and Wigan - to offer a safe space to educate these youngsters on the dangers of trespassing, show how dangerous their behaviour can be, and to try and steer them in a more positive direction.
Inside the bus are PlayStation's, VR headsets, an ice hockey table and a kitchen area.
There were 2,098 trespass incidents across the North West in the last financial year, with 22% (471 of them) involving young people under the age of 18.
Foundation 92 has teamed up with leading train operators, the British Transport Police and Network Rail to engage young people in positive activities and to try and change their behaviour for the better.
Tom Hutton, head of Foundation 92, said:
"We want the resources to be in the best place at the best time where the need is greatest, so that collaboration with train station staff is really important because there are effectively the eyes and ears that feed the intelligence.
"Our team of youth workers will base ourselves at a station where we know there's potentially going to be young people congregating, where there's been previous incidents of offending behaviour and the team will go and speak to the young people, they'll develop a relationship but have a good understanding of their background and the vehicles are use effectively as a safe space."
Nick Chadwick, the North West's Regional Director for Cross Country, said:
"I can think of numerous incidents that have involved fatalities of young people that have been playing around the railway and things have gone horribly wrong - not just for one person but groups of people where there have been multiple fatalities, it's a really sad thing.
"This kind of project - young people talking to each other, talking about experiences and stories and educating each other, is great."