At what age is it ok for a child to travel alone by train?

I used to travel to my auntie's alone when I was nine, two buses, the underground and a mainline train. I loved the journey and never got lost, and station staff were very helpful when they saw a child travelling alone.

Our GS regularly travels on the IoW ferry, collected at each end by a parent. He's 10.

When I worked in a London secondary school it always amazed me how many 16 - 18 year old students had never travelled on the London underground, couldn't understand a train timetable or book tickets, or find their way to work placements and interviews. Many of them had never been out of the borough and were taken everywhere by car. A parent told me she expected the school to provide transport for interviews etc!

I do think we over-protect our kids sometimes. We flatly refused to ferry our boys around. They had legs and bikes and knew where the buses were. No mobile phones when they were young but they had a tongue in their heads and they became streetwise and confident by finding their own way about.

I must have been unlucky. I am 70 now, but when I was 9 I took the bus to my ballet lesson. I was sat by the window half way down the bus. On route, a man got on and sat next to me. He started running his hand up and down my leg. I totally froze and didn't move or make a noise. When the bus arrived at the destination, I got off and ran like hell to my ballet class. I didn't tell anyone. The following week, I had to catch the same bus and I made the decion to sit in the seats facing each other by the door. The bus was quiet that day. The same man got on and sat next to me and started doing the same thing again. The conductor sat opposite and just smirked. After that I never went to ballet again and it surprises me looking back that I didn't tell anyone about it. My Mother couldn't understand why I didn't want to go anymore, especially when she had paid out for my new pink satin ballet shoes!

I was lucky enough to have a older sister who went everywhere with me. We thought we were safe. Went park together twice someone pulled up and tried entice us into their cars. We knew better and walked on I remember us being allowed to cinema together and sitting at front empty there and a man came and sat next to me of all places there were empty ? After a few minutes he started trying rub my thigh I nudged my sister and showed her . We both moved to the back for safety .he soon left the cinema thinking we had reported him. I think the usher asked us why we moved as well. Had seen him. In those days 1965 on we didn't think about it at all. As kids. But I wouldn't let my kids go anywhere alone. It's just not safe. Sadly my dear sister who protected me is no longer with us. Things that go on even then.

There are closed circuit cameras on trains. There are still guards, thank goodness. Think eleven is young but that is the age when many children start a secondary school that may be a train ride away. By eleven most children have phones, speak to the guard and a watchful eye will be taken. Husband used to recount when he and a friend went to a cinema aged twelve men in raincoats used to come and sit next to them and try the fondling nonsense his friend would stand up, yell at the top of his voice, this dirty bugger is trying to grope me. Lights on usher knew what was being tried on. Rehearse with either sex child how to draw attention to the perpetrator putting them in control.

When I was about 10 years old I was put on a train by my mum (the guard said he would make sure I was OK) and met in London by my aunt and cousin, then did the return trip a week later.
I don’t think that would be allowed now, but a 13 year old boy is probably capable of travelling alone.

Fuseta,
You didn't live in Manchester did you?
As this happened to me as a 13 year old in my school. uniform, a man got on my bus sat next to me on 2 separate occasions and tried to press himself against my thighs,I was terrified and could never tell my parents or elder sister even though she was a police woman all hell would have broken loose and as a shy girl I really couldn't stand the fuss.
I feel children should be given the chance to be independent but it really depends how safe the area is that they would be travelling in.

Pudding123 No, it was in High Wycombe! Coincidence though! Looking back I can’t believe the conductor did nothing. They must have been friends.

I don't think people are on the whole more risk, just we've been sensitized to it by the media. More of a risk is the chaos and cancellations on the transport system My mother booked help on and off an intercity train and when it terminated early was about to be whisked off to a siding until someone noticed and helped her - a passenger, not railway staff! My 17 yr old flew to a sports match with an 18 yr old friend using rail both ends, he returned safely despite having to call me for support on the homeward journey and almost missing his flight. He got stuck at Reading station aged 14 having lost his return ticket and not charged his phone, called me from a phone box reverse charges - he went to the ticket office and explained his age and dilemma and they got him home safely... All goes towards learning how to manage in the world and preferable to what we saw with some of his peers who left for uni and had never caught a bus or train before (courtesy of Mum and Dad's Taxi service). Keeping the mobile charged is the biggest challenge (maybe provide a charging unit or spare battery) and they can always phone home for advice!

When I went to grammar school I had to walk to get a bus into Weymouth and then caught the train to Dorchester. I also went on my own into Weymouth to go to Saturday morning pictures and for my music lessons. The last two I did when I was younger than 11.

On holiday a few years ago, we visited a garden at Menton, close to the Italian border. Whilst there we met the elderly owner , who was a grandson of the creators of the garden. He told us how when he and his brother were young they used to catch the Train Bleu at the nearby station to go to school at Eton.

I used to catch the service bus to my first school, alone, aged 5. But there were bus conductors in those days, to keep an eye on me. At the age of ten I was entrusted with babysitting my four siblings, ages 3 to 6, so our parents could go shopping in peace. Also aged ten, a favourite game with a friend was running amok on the London Underground, getting deliberately lost, then working out the route back home. I would regularly travel alone by train between London and Bristol. Different times....

No younger than 16

My son made the journey from school in Somerset home to Yorkshire for exeat by train once as his two sisters would have had to be taken with me backwards and forwards otherwise as their father was away on business at the time. He managed ok but confessed he didn't like the experience. Fortunately exH was back home by the end so I was able to drive him back. We didn't repeat the experiment.

Sorry, he was 13 at the time.

Will it be during daylight hours? There is normally a conductor on board so perhaps catch them at boarding time. Go through the change - I'm sure it will be fine though. They could be advised on safety, such as moving carriage if there's anyone rowdy etc. But having a brother who works in that capacity, trouble is thankfully rare.

i don't think guards/conductors will take any responsibility for children.
if asked, i think they will say that they cannot/ are not allowed to.

I really think we are doing our children a great disservice if they aren't able to travel to and from High School by the age of 11. If children are nervous or it is a complicated journey, parents should go with them once or twice to prepare them.

I really don't believe that it is more dangerous than it was when we were children. All kids have mobile phones and there are cameras everywhere. A few posters have recounted incidents where they were groped on transport or in cinemas - that kind of thing was in a way tolerated when we were children, it certainly wouldn't be now.

In answer to the OP's question - yes, if he is a confident 13 year old he should be encouraged to make the journey.

Update from me, the OP.
Grandson is safely home! I haven’t spoken to him yet, but his mum sent me a photo of him arriving at the station, looking well and happy.
Thank you for all your comments.

another step on the path to independence. tick.

I was sent from Plymouth to Delabole as a child of 6 on my own. Had to change at Oakhampton. I can remember gazing out at the sunny fields as we puffed along.

Seems extraordinarily young, but the only reason I can give is that so many children had travelled during the war years as evacuees. The guard told me when to get off etc.

When my daughter started secondary school she went on the train. She was eleven. M

Posted too soon! When my son was thirteen he and his friend went into London on the tube, went to Harrods, but luckily had moved on before the bomb went off! My sister and I were put on a train from York to London in the late fifties, taken across London by one of those universal aunts and put on a train to East Sussex, we were going to stay with our great aunts, one of whom was a bit backward, the other one so deaf that everything had to be written on a slate! I think children are over protected these days.

I traveled from S.W Scotland to kent overnight on my own aged 12. Last year Granddaughter travelled London to S.W. Scotland on her own, although i did insist she went first class.