I remember me at 9yo and my 7yo brother riding the NP 2-car train on the Staples (MN) to Oakes (ND) line for 2 hours or so. Parents put us on the train, spoke to conductor, that was all it took. Relatives met us at our destination. No problem.
Then, as now, growing-up kids are all over the map as far as reliability and judgment. Then, as now, public transport is much safer than driving or walking.
But in the last 10-12 years - policies and rules get tighter and tighter. And sometimes ridiculously so. In about 2002 I bought (online) my then 13yo kid an Amtrak ticket from where he was stranded in the Pacific Northwest to Seattle where his mom lived (me being in mid-America at the time). He showed at the station with his school ID, got his ticket from the agent, and rode ALY to Seattle with a train change at PDX with no problem at all. Two years later an (unnamed) airline required an "unaccompanied minor" supplement ($70) for him to fly one leg. "Dad -- I don't need a bracelet or a coloring book" But the airline needed the $70.
