Network Rail's No Messin' campaign to warn children about the dangers of playing on or near railway lines has been launched by Bolton's champion boxer Amir Khan.
The campaign began as it was revealed that Leeds is the worst place in the UK for railway crime, including trespass and vandalism followed by:
Coventry
Willenhall (near Coventry)
Edinburgh Waverley
Darlington
Newton (near Glasgow)
Swindon
Weston-Super-Mare
Moston (Manchester)
Castleford

From 2003-2007 there were 256 accidental fatalities on Britain’s railways (note: this does not include suicides or workforce deaths) and one in four accidental fatalities was of someone aged eight to 18

Fatalities:
2003 – 54
2004 – 42
2005 – 59
2006 – 45
2007 – 56
2008 (Jan to May) 32

Amir Khan, Olympic silver medal winner in 2004  said "If you mess about on the railways the best you can hope for is that you won't get injured, arrested or even killed," and wanted children to understand the risks.

According to Network Rail  crime is estimated to cost just over £5 million each week - £264m every year and has released shocking CCTV footage of some incidents to highlight the risks of messing about on the railways.
Among them were examples of children "playing chicken" - deliberately standing in the path of a train travelling at speed, only moving out of the way at the last possible moment.
Network Rail said there were more than 15,000 reported incidents of rail crime in 2007, but the true figure could be much higher. Leeds alone had 225 incidents.
About 2,200 objects were placed on the tracks last year and nearly 3,000 missiles were thrown or fired at trains.   
On top of this there were 806 "near misses" in the last five years, half of which involved children.
To try to change this dreadful situation Amir Khan has launched No Messin' Live! which is a series of free two-day events to held across the country during the school holidays when rail crime peaks.