A new escort service for children travelling alone on Britain's fastest railway is typically entrepreneurial for GNER.

From today, youngsters aged eight to 15 can be put on a train in the knowledge that they will be supervised throughout the journey until a relative or friend meets them at the other end.

The service will be warmly welcomed by stressed parents who cannot spare the time - or cash - to travel with their children to drop them off for a stay with, for instance, grandparents; or, say, by single mums dispatching their offspring for a break with dad.

But GNER, which operates the route through York between Kings Cross and Aberdeen, stresses that though responsible children will be regularly checked on throughout a journey, the company is not offering a babysitting service and someone must be there to greet children at their destination.

Neither is it a way for stressed out parents to solve all their problems by buying their child a one-way ticket!

see NEWS 'Kids get train escorts'

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