National Rail seeks ad agency for level crossing campaign

Network Rail is in talks with advertising agencies about developing an awareness campaign to warn people of the dangers of level crossings.

The body responsible for maintaining the nation’s rail infrastructure says it has been in informal talks with several agencies and has drawn up a shortlist of three for the spring campaign. It would not disclose the shortlisted agencies.

Last year there were several fatal accidents on level crossings in the UK, including one just before Christmas that claimed the lives of two teenage girls in Essex, who were hit by an express train as they tried to cross the tracks at their local station.

Network Rail, which owns the 9,000 level crossings in Britain, has responded by preparing the campaign, which it hopes will help reduce the number of incidents.

A Network Rail spokesman says: “It is vitally important we ensure that anybody who has to cross the railway, whether on foot or using a vehicle, is fully aware of the safest way of doing so.”

For the past two years the company has run campaigns warning youngsters of the dangers of trespassing near railways, including an unbranded campaign last year, but it has decided on a wider awareness campaign about level crossings this year.

A spokesman says that the details of the campaign have not yet been finalised but he says it will probably be mostly below the line. He adds that the budgets have yet to be finalised.