Railway staff praised for helping to reunite missing girl with her family

James Waring and Abdi Sharey were working at Blackburn Station in August when they saw the unaccompanied child walking towards the ticket barriers.

After asking her some questions, they became concerned for her welfare and decided to contact the police. 

Greater Manchester Police, which had launched a major search operation to locate the child earlier that day, sent officers to pick her up and reunite her with her family

Craig Harrop, regional director for Northern, said: “We’re incredibly proud of James and Abdi for reacting so quickly to help to reunite this girl with her family.

“Staff working at stations across our network are not just there to check tickets. They help protect thousands of people who travel on our services and are trained to respond to a wide range of challenging situations.”

James works for Northern and Abdi is employed by Carlisle Support Services (CSS), a company which provides gateline staff for the train operator.

Steve Cere, director of rail strategy for CSS, said: “This incident highlights the importance of having a visible staff presence across the network and underscores our commitment to actively ensuring that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility.

“James and Abdi’s actions underscore our team’s dedication to keeping all passenger’s safety and wellbeing at the forefront of everything we do, and we couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Since 2022, Northern's operational colleagues have been trained to spot vulnerable people on the railway and get them to safety.  

The training is provided by the charity ‘Railway Children’, whose work focusses on identifying individuals at risk and helping with early forms of intervention.

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.