Our Education Officer, Maddy Mills, and North Downs Line Officer, David Daniels, visited Guildford Train station on Thursday 29th July to hand out the new activity sheets for the national Backtrack anti-trespassing competition. The aim of these activity sheets is to encourage young people to create their script or storyboard and submit their entry whilst travelling on the train! Free pencils were also handed out along with the Thomas The Tank Engine story books for the very young travellers. We’ll be back at Guildford station on Monday 16th August between 9.30 a.m. – 11.30 a.m. Come and say ‘hello’!
Backtrack, the national anti-trespassing competition is back for another year and it is open to anyone aged seven and over. The competition’s creators, The Community Rail Education Network, believe that young people pay attention to their peers, that why they’re asking young people to share anti-trespassing messages with other young people, for the chance to win some great prizes including GoPro bundles and ‘money can’t buy’ experiences.
The competition has a brand new website with lots of inspiration and ideas for entries and also contains an online form to upload entries to easily. It is www.backtrackcompetition.co.uk
Originally launched during lockdown in 2020, the Backtrack competition was designed to tackle the very worrying number of trespass reports on our railways despite lockdown restrictions. During lockdown railway trespass incidents were reported involving people as young as 6 years old. As we approach the summer holiday season our railways are seeing an increase in trespassing incidents in our area and this problem needs to be tackled.
This year, the competition is open for 7 year-olds right up to 18+, so adults can put their entries in too! Like last year, all entries should be submitted before 30th September at midnight. All entries should be filmed at home, in a garden or school/educational institution – definitely nothing on location at a station or the railway tracks! For each age group category, a GoPro bundle is up for grabs. There will also be ‘money can’t buy’ prizes awarded to stand out entrants in the following categories: best video, best song/rap, best storyboard and best script.
To enter visit the website www.backtrackcompetition.co.uk
The Backtrack team are offering to do online sessions for groups over the summer to deliver key safety messages and entry advice, so if you’re a group and would like to book a session please email backtrack.competition@gmail.com.
