BOSTON -- Moving to prevent some of the nearly 500 deaths that occur each year on the nation's railroad tracks, Amtrak officials today will initiate a public education and advertising campaign at South Station aimed largely at children, the Boston Globe reports.

''We want to be able to instill in kids the same fear of railroad tracks that they have at a very young age of crossing the street,'' Karen Dunn, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said. ''You would never walk down the middle of the street and expect to walk away safely, but a lot of people think they can do that with railroad tracks.''

Last year, 29 people were either killed or were believed to have committed suicide on railroad right-of-ways in New England, according to Amtrak figures.

Although children are a minority of the deaths that do take place, Dunn said, the campaign will attempt to disabuse youngsters of their romantic view of the rails.

''The fact is, these incidents really involve tracks, not trains,'' she said. ''The trains are where they're supposed to be. It's the people who are out of place: on the tracks.''

Cosponsored by Operation Lifesaver, a national coalition of railroads and public safety authorities, the ''Spring into Safety'' campaign will make its first public appearance at South Station at 10 a.m., Dunn said. The event will include an airing of the campaign's public service announcements, which will then appear on New England TV and radio stations.

A group of second-, third-, and fourth-grade students from Most Precious Blood parochial school in Hyde Park will attend the event, where they will watch an Amtrak police officer perform magic tricks that highlight the power of electricity and trains.

So far this year, two people have died, both in Ashland, on Massachusetts rail lines maintained by Amtrak. One of the deaths has been ruled a suicide.

In 1999, 19-year-old Doug Jenkins was killed while jogging on the tracks in Ashland as well. Police said Jenkins was listening to music on headphones and was struck by a train he never saw.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, also a member of Operation Lifesaver, has seen one death this year on its commuter rail lines, officials say. Last year, 11 deaths occurred, and there were five deaths in each of the two years before that.

The MBTA has trained several dozen law enforcement officials in Eastern and Central Massachusetts on how to educate school children about the dangers, said Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesman. The MBTA stepped up the campaign in early 1998, after a 13-year-old Mansfield girl was killed when an Amtrak train, traveling at 99 miles per hour, grazed her as it barreled through Attleboro station.

''In reality, there's almost nothing we can do to prevent that kind of thing from happening - other than education,'' Pesaturo said.