MTA Metro-North Railroad asked kids to get creative about safety, and they stepped up to meet the challenge. Metro-North today announced the five winners of Metro-North’s Railroad’s Safety Poster Contest that asked students, from grades pre-K to 12, to create posters illustrating what they believe is most important about rail safety.

The contest, which ran from October 2018 to the end of November 2018, coincided with National Rail Safety Week and was open to students who attend schools within Metro-North’s territory throughout New York and Connecticut.

TRACKS, the railroad’s free safety community outreach and education program, oversaw the contest.   The five winning posters will be featured in TRACKS presentations for the 2019 calendar year, and the four contest runners-up will receive special TRACKS swag.   

 

The TRACKS team received a total of 62 student poster entries from thirteen different schools. The poster entries were divided into four groups (Pre-K, K-3rd, 4th-8th, and 9th-12th) for the judging process.  The posters were evaluated on the best representations of safety around trains and train tracks.  

 

TRACKS, an acronym for “Together Railroads And Communities Keeping Safe,” is run by Metro-North’s Office of System Safety; the program earned the Gold Award for Safety, which is the highest safety award presented by the American Public Transportation Association.  TRACKS covers grade crossing safety, rider safety, trespassing and suicide prevention. It’s designed for students, drivers, customers, pedestrians and residents who work and live in or around the communities Metro-North Railroad serves.  

In addition to organizing the kid friendly poster contest to help make its safety message resonate with young people, TRACKS introduced special ambassadors, a super-hero known as Metro-Man, and his faithful companion, a dog named Tracks. The characters are incorporated into safety presentations and are featured in coloring and activity books that help reinforce the safety message.  Metro-Man - a Metro-North employee dressed in a special costume that features a voice modulator and LED display – and his sidekick Tracks, who is played by a MTA Police Department canine, also make appearances at community events and safety presentations. 

Winning schools will get a meet-and-greet session with Metro-Man, where he’ll present the school with a customized school banner, handout TRACKS giveaways and present a certificate of recognition from the Vice President of System Safety and the President of Metro-North Railroad.  

 “Safety is our top priority at Metro-North,” said Catherine Rinaldi, President of Metro-North Railroad. “I’m delighted that our contest received such a wonderful response from the students who live in the communities we serve.  Since Metro-North initiated the program in 2016, TRACKS has reached 230,000 people The contest was a creative way to amplify our safety message and help keep all the children who live in the railroad’s territory out of harm’s way.”

The list of contest winners and runners-up is below:

Winner: J.A.C.E Daycare and Early Learning Program (Wappingers Falls, NY)

Runner-Up: Through the Looking Glass (Buchanan, NY)

 

Winner: Park City Magnet School (Bridgeport, CT)

Runner-Up: Frank G. Lindsey School (Montrose, NY)

 

Winner: Dobbs Ferry Middle School (Dobbs Ferry, NY) AND Graham Elementary School (Mt. Vernon, NY)

Runner-Up: P723X @ 338X (Bronx, NY)

 

Winner: Cardinal Hayes High School (Bronx, NY)

Runner-Up: North Haven High School (North Haven, CT)

 

For more information about TRACKS and the safety poster contest please visit:   http://web.mta.info/mnr/tracks.