The

railway made it into the national media for a positive reason on January 31, with the heartwarming story of the reunion of a woman and the train driver who had saved her life 18 months previously.

On March 24 2017, Liz Pontin decided to take her own life. Just before she stepped off a station platform in front of an oncoming train, the driver, Ashley John, saw her and sounded his horn. It was enough to shock her back onto the platform.

John stopped his train at the station and left the cab to find Pontin. He spent a few minutes talking to her about what she was planning, and succeeded in changing her mind that day.

They had never seen each other again until the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme reunited them 18 months later.

A ten- minute video is available on the BBC website, telling the touching story of how one newly qualified train driver saved (and changed) a vulnerable individual’s life. You can watch it at http:// bit. ly/ Strangersavedmylife.