Would you let your 10 and 13 year old on London to Leeds train alone?

[Secondtonaan]

Dds 10 (nearly 11!) and 13 are staying with family in London for a couple of days in the summer hols.

We live in Leeds and an option is them getting the train from Kings X together if my mum sees them on the train at the station and I meet them off the train at Leeds.

They're both v sensible and have phones with trackers on. Would you do this?! I think so but seems a long way.

Honestly at just over 2 hours, they will spend all the time on their phone anyway.

Look carefully - I was referring to other routes with several trains that take 4 to 5 hours. Please stop jumping on my posts.

My son used to see his dad every other weekend. His Dad lived in London, i was west of Peterborough. From the age of just turned 12, I would buy him a first class ticket (cheap off-peak, in advance, as under 15 - often £20 return) and put him on the train at Peterborough. Usually one of the first class guards would say they would make sure he got off at London.

I would then text his dad with the carriage letter and seat number and his dad would go onto the platform and stand where that carriage would pull in and meet him off. This worked very well as he would get free Wifi and a free hot chocolate and brownie and just stare at his phone the whole way.

So yes, i would do it for sure.

Yes I would have allowed DS to do this but he was a seasoned Londoner by 10 who could navigate the tube by himself.

My question would be any risk they'll argue or fight? That's what I would be worried about.

When my sister and I were 11 and 13 we flew unaccompanied from South Africa to the UK! We were fine.

Why is that relevant to OPs situation? Leeds London is a short train journey, a direct route through mainline stations that is unlikely to have any problems.
Talking about other 4-5 jouneys with more complicated routs is irrelevant.

Lol maybe it really does depend where you live in Britain.

Getting a train where I live can be risky and certainly very unpleasant. Because of the feral teens and people with addictions roaming around with weapons or generally not being well disposed to the general public. I am not exaggerating.

There are plenty of other ways to build resilience gradually.

10 is too young to go anywhere without an adult, that's my opinion as OP was asking for opinions. I'll err on the side of caution and I have 2 young adults 19 and 20, both perfectly capable of travelling by themselves across Europe and dealing with unpredictable situations.

@SlothOnARope where do you live that is so dangerous?

Merseyside. It's grim.

occasionally. Why? Probably one of the least common of the problems that could occur on a train. Someone was sick on my shoes last week though. And of course the kids could be travel sick themselves.

Sorry to hear that.

My friend's nieces do the opposite journey (and then the same journey) from their parents' in London to their Nanny's house in Yorkshire. They are Y6 and Y9. I did emit a 'wow' on hearing this, but then thought good on them. Think it's great independence. Also, majorly depends on the kids and their life experience.

I live in Cheshire and spend a good amount of time in Merseyside. I think slothonarope is exaggerating just a tad.

Um, ok I'm exaggerating. Did you hear about the umpteenth fatal daylight shooting in a Liverpool suburb today?

In the past two years, two people I know have been beaten up in the street.

In the past 12 months: I walk to the local supermarket and am asked if I know "where to score"; walking DD back from school we encounter two local thugs pulling balaclavas on ready to burgle; two knife incidents outside dd's school; two kids expelled for overdosing in the toilets (same school); DD20 verbally abused and sworn at by random woman on bus "for looking at her daughter funny" (she wasn't). In the past month, DS19 on bus early evening, witnesses smackhead walk into the road in front of the bus and start verbally abusing and punching the bus driver, who then gets off and punches him back before resuming the route as if nothing happened. DS then spends an edifying evening googling the difference between smackhead and crackhead. Two weeks later, local paper reports a similar incident (same bus).

Yesterday afternoon, I had a delightful encounter with local pisshead on public transport, regaling me with his (unsolicited) opinions on the local population "Watch out fkn scum of the earth round here. Fkn Scum of the earth" repeated X10 (then luckily it was my stop).

Oh and I forgot, today the 4th teenager in as many months was robbed at knifepoint for his e-bike, 4 miles up the road.

How is that exaggerating?

@Homedesign123 Adding to this, I mentioned my first flight when I was 16. There were stops in Bahrain and I had to change planes in SIngapore.

Well we couldn't land at Bahrain because of a sandstorm so we landed at a little airport out in the desert with no facilities so they kept us on the plane with no air con for about 5 hours.

When I got to Singapore my connecting flight had left hours ago so they diverted a plane heading to Melbourne (I was heading to Perth).

This was the 1980s so no mobile phones.

I have to wonder why you spent all your money and why you didn't make a reverse charge phone call?