Amtrak rolls out new rules for unaccompanied minors

Cliff Owen / AP

Travelers wait to board Amtrak's Northeast Regional train to Boston at Union Station in Washington earlier this year. On November 1, Amtrak is initiating new rules for unaccompanied minors.

By Harriet Baskas, msnbc.com contributor

If your child will be traveling alone via Amtrak, check the rules. Starting Nov. 1, Amtrak rolls out new rules that, among other things, increase the minimum age of unaccompanied minors to 13, up from 8.

Previously, children age 8 through 14 could travel alone on Amtrak trains. Now, children 12 and under may only travel with another person who is at least 18 years old.

Children between the ages of 13 and 15 may travel unaccompanied under a revised and streamlined set of rules.

?This is not in response to any incidents,? Jeff Snowden, Amtrak senior director of service delivery, said in a statement, but ?... out of an abundance of concern for the comfort and safety of all our travelers.?

Under the old rules, children traveling as unaccompanied minors were issued wristbands that had to be worn for the duration of their trip. The new rules lift that requirement, in part because those wristbands too easily identified a traveler?s age. ?Also, if a specific train station ran out of wristbands we?d have to deny travel to that child because of no fault of their own,? said Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari. He?called the new set of rules ?more customer friendly.?

Previously, an adult bringing a child to the station had to sign a release form and remain at the station until the train departed. Those requirements are no longer part of the official policy. However, as before, a child traveling as an unaccompanied minor will be interviewed by station personnel, who will determine if the child is capable of traveling alone.

According to Magliari, about 35,000 trips are made on Amtrak each year using the unaccompanied minor ticket code. Total ridership for all children on Amtrak in FY11 (Oct. 2010-Sept. 2011) was more than 1.1 million.

Click here to read Amtrak?s policy for unaccompanied minors.

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Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/31/8568944-amtrak-rolls-out-new-rules-for-unaccompanied-minors

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