With the new CapeFLYER trains scheduled to head through Wareham to Cape Cod at speeds of up to 55 mph beginning Friday, students at the John W. Decas Elementary School on Thursday learned about the importance of staying off railroad tracks in order to stay safe.

"You want Officer [Karl] Baptiste to take you down to the Wareham Police Department?" Ed O'Connor of Operation Lifesaver asked the students.

The answer was a resounding "no!"

"Then don't walk on the tracks!" O'Connor responded, explaining that trespassing is illegal. "Trespassing is a dangerous thing."

Baptiste, the Police Department's school resource officer, scheduled a visit from Operation Lifesaver, which promotes railway safety and education.

The CapeFLYER service will bring faster, more frequent trains through town on Fridays through Sundays. Additionally, Decas Elementary is located adjacent to the Station Street railroad crossing in West Wareham.

"There's a white line on the road" near railroad tracks, O'Connor told the students. "Don't get any closer than that."

O'Connor showed a cartoon to the younger students and a short educational movie to the older ones. Both stressed the importance of crossing tracks at crosswalks, the need to stay quiet while riding a school bus so the driver can listen for trains, the danger of putting objects on railroad tracks, and the need to look for lights, crosswalk signs, and gates when approaching a railway.

The presentations explained that trains, being much heavier than cars and bicycles, take much longer to stop than the modes of transportation that children are used to.

In fact, the students were told, it can take the length of 18 football fields for a train going 55 mph to stop — that's more than a mile.

"There is no magic button that can bring you back to life if you're struck by a train," O'Connor told the students.

His seriousness was not lost on the students. At the end of the presentations, the students told O'Connor what they learned: "Tracks are for trains, not for kids."

"Don't put anything on the tracks because it could bounce back."

"Trains could be loud."

"Always stay away from railroad tracks."

The CapeFLYER will complete Boston-to-Hyannis runs on Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday mornings, and Hyannis-to-Boston runs late Friday nights and on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Service will run from May 24 through September 2, and will run from South Station in Boston to the Hyannis Transportation Center. The closest stop to Wareham will be in Buzzards Bay.