Young people in London have been busy designing a seat for Crossrail, London's proposed West-East Railway. And others have got creative in writing a TV/radio script to persuade car drivers to go by train.
It's all part of Crossrail's ongoing programme of involving young people in the development of the railway – and helping them educationally.
Recently, a group of primary and secondary school students attended a special award ceremony to collect prizes for their winning entries for two competitions featured in the Link Magazine, the quarterly newsletter of the Young Crossrail Education Programme. The ceremony was held at the Cross London Rail Links (CLRL) offices near St James's Park.
In one competition students were asked to design their ideal type of seat on a future Crossrail train. In another competition, they had to describe in 50 words what they would say on a TV or radio programme to persuade car drivers to use Crossrail instead.
All the prizes were presented by CLRL's Richard Morris. Managing Director, Delivery who said: 'I am extremely impressed with the high standard of entries, imagination and enthusiasm shown from the young people living along the Crossrail route.
'We are aiming to build a world-class affordable railway delivered through effective partnerships and project excellence, and we welcome young people playing their part in this. One day they may be using the railway to get to their job or even working on it.'
Pooja Kaur, aged 12, from Hackney and Anita Santinelli, aged 10, from Brentwood won portable DVD players for their chair designs. These included features such as aromatherapy back rests and virtual headset games.
In the second competition Abid Uddin from Whitechapel and Joseph Cray, from Hornchurch in Essex were presented with PSP players for their imaginative TV and radio broadcasts.
Abid, aged 13, wrote -
'It's time we know how cars are uncool! First of all cars let out bad gas which could change the weather for us. We could be burnt toast! So if you wanna be cool, use Crossrail instead!'
Joseph, aged 9, presented the very catchy 'Crossrail Rap':
'Listen up, get the train
Forget the car, and the strain,
Sit in comfort, read a book,
Come on people take a look.
Faster and safer than the car,
The environment's better off by far.
Lots of stations for you to choose.
Come on, what have you got to lose?'
The Lucky Winners: back row (L-R): Richard Morris, Managing Director – Delivery, Clinton Leeks, Corporate Affairs Director; front row (L-R): Pooja Kaur, Joseph Cray, Anita Santinelli, Abid Uddin.
Over 100 entries were received for each competition and 12 finalists from each were invited to the award event. All the finalists received Crossrail goodie bags.
A different competition is featured in every edition of the 'The Link' newsletter which is delivered to 300,000 young people at schools along the route and is part of Crossrail's ongoing education programme.
The programme, one of the first of its kind, involves working in partnership with over 700 local schools within one mile of the Crossrail route. Students take part in a range of curriculum based activities designed to help them acquire a better understanding of Crossrail whilst also being a part of their educational progress.
Issued 9 March 2007
