Great Northern gives Cambridge students lesson in train travel

Great Northern has shown students from Cambridge charity Red Balloon just how easy it is to travel by train.

The aim of the ‘try a train’ day was to give the youngsters the confidence to travel on their own and, with it, gain greater independence.

All eight attend the Cambridge Red Balloon Learner Centre which helps children who have been so severely bullied they are unable to attend mainstream school.

The students and their four teachers travelled to King’s Cross and back from Cambridge, accompanied by Cambridge on-board train staff Phil Moore and Ian Morecraft and two head office staff.

On arrival in London they learned how to use ticket machines and find their away around the different parts of a station. As part of this they had a detailed tour of both King’s Cross and St Pancras.

Carrie Herbert, Founder and President of Red Balloon, said:

“The ‘try a train’ day offered to Red Balloon by GTR provided a fantastic opportunity for our students to engage with the community. Red Balloon works to recover severely bullied and traumatised children who have self-excluded from mainstream education.

"The young people who attend Red Balloon have had their confidence shattered by their previous experiences, and so activities like the ‘try a train’ day provide a perfect opportunity to experience independence and to learn about the rail network. We are very grateful to GTR for enabling our students to take part in this day - they thoroughly enjoyed it!”

Great Northern’s Accessibility Manager Antony Merlyn said:

“The main point of the day was to help people whose confidence has been knocked by bullies to be more independent. We wanted it to be both fun and informative and our staff were fantastic.”

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Notes to editors

GTR has supported Red Balloon since the start of its franchise. We are determined to stamp out the bullying of children when travelling on our trains to and from school. Red Balloon have trained several of our Revenue Protection colleagues in how to spot the signs of bullying and intimidation and what to do about it and more is planned.