When is a teenager old enough to go on the train alone?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Newly_retired wrote: »

There is obviously an agenda here

Unless she relies upon the boyfriend/friends when out and about in Manchester?

After all, there are plenty of adults that wouldn't dream of going on holiday alone. Even before you get to the point of the permanently disoriented like my DD1.

Spendless

notakid wrote: »

I'm glad I've seen this thread its made me feel a whole lot better. My daughter has a boyfriend in Southampton, we live in Brum until she was 16 I'd travel down with her go and do my own thing for a few hours and then met up with her for the journey home.

I promised her when she turned 16 she could go on her own. She knows the route. The first time she tried by herself a train broke down and she had to come home.

I'm like Jo Jo's daughter I could get lost going to the corner shop. I have no sense of direction and once after a day trip to York took my children to London instead of back to Brum.

Both children are much more sensible it seems.:o

:rotfl: which is why I think 'learning' how to catch a train and how to read a timetable and the destinations board is a valuable life skill.

When my sis -i-l commuted to work she came home from work ill one day and caught the train from York with the next stop Peterborough, when she just wanted to be in another part of yorkshire. Her reason was 'the train was at the platform where she always catches it' yes but you came home in the middle of the afternoon not at your normal 5pm finish time, you dopey mare.:p

I have no idea if it's the same all over the country, but certainly I've never caught a train from a main station that doesn't have the destination and all the stops listed on a board by the platform that your train is departing from. That's in addition to the main board that has all the next trains their destination, platform number and time they are departing from it. My little unmanned village station has a written board with times on plus a loud speak.

Humphrey10

Spendless wrote: »

Her reason was 'the train was at the platform where she always catches it' yes but you came home in the middle of the afternoon not at your normal 5pm finish time

Trains can be retimed and replatformed, I really wouldn't advise getting on a train just because there is usually one on that platform at that time of day going to the destination you want.

WhiteHorse

daisiegg wrote: »

Do you think a 15 and a half year old is old enough to travel on a train from Manchester to London on their own ?

I was travelling to school on mainline trains (including changes), when I was eight.

Seanymph

My children's father lives in Canada - and they have flown backwards and forwards since he moved there.

At 12 they stop being accompanied, and the first time my daughter flew alone with no supervision was at 13. With an eight hour stopover at Toronto airport and a connecting onward flight.

She is now 16, and last half term went with her sixteen year old friend to Valencia for a week. The friend had a cousin at university there, and they flew over and stayed with him, but they flew independently, and he was at uni during the week - he took them to a football match, but they used hire bicycles and buses to get about the city alone all day.

My step daughter and step son have caught trains since they were 14 to visit relatives who don't live nearby - my 15 year old step son returned yesterday from Colchester to Norwich having spent three days with his aunt.

So in answer to your question, no, I would have no trouble with it at all.

Owain_Moneysaver

Spendless wrote: »

I have no idea if it's the same all over the country, but certainly I've never caught a train from a main station that doesn't have the destination and all the stops listed on a board by the platform that your train is departing from. That's in addition to the main board that has all the next trains their destination, platform number and time they are departing from it. My little unmanned village station has a written board with times on plus a loud speak.

And they're all online now too:

http://traintimes.org.uk/live/
http://livetrains.co.uk/

The above two are live feeds from National Rail; the following is the timetable and what should happen but isn't updated live:

http://www.opentraintimes.com/

There are various 'apps' and. at least in Scotland, most unstaffed stations of any business have help point phones too.

Lunar_Eclipse

Unless there are physical/mental disabilities involved that could affect rational decision making/personal safety and the teenager involved is confident enough to travel alone, I'd say any teenager, on the basis that we're talking about someone of at least 13.

My 11 year old daughter takes 3 trains each way to school daily and I flew alone to the US (for a 6 week sports camp) when I had just turned 13.

Savvy_Sue

Call me devious, but if Mum is likely to be anti 'on principle', then is there a sneaky way round establishing more independence by going somewhere else first?

So, rather than suggesting the train to London, is there somewhere else she'd like to go at some point? So getting the train for a shorter journey and meeting DH there, but at her suggestion rather than his, IYSWIM.

TheConways

When I was 16 I *lived* on my own, flew transatlantic on my own etc etc, changing inbetween.

I feel your frustration. Sadly, this appears not to be about the train journey, but the mother having overall control of the situation....

Good luck.

lostinrates

If she is fifteen and a half then it might only be an issue for another six months, i wouldn't force it if i were your fiance, because his daughter might ipherself soon.