Teddington transport wiz Daniel, 9, set his sights on a job as a train driver (From Your Local Guardian)

Teddington transport wiz Daniel, 9, set his sights on a job as a train driver

9:50am Monday 6th April 2009

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Much grumbling centres around the state of public transport but one Teddington youngster’s love of buses and trains is so strong he was memorising bus routes at the tender age of five.

Two years earlier - at just three-years-old - Daniel Morrison, from Sutherland Grove, learned to count by writing bus numbers as part of a game at home and, now nine, acts as a personal navigator for mum, Emma.

“At five he drew this fantastic map of the local bus route and the stops off by heart, I could not believe it.

Emma Morrison

Mrs Morrison, who does not own a car, said: “He’s really very helpful to me because I’ve got a really bad sense of direction.

“I trust myself to his knowledge of the trains to get us places.

“He would help the teachers at his school if they wanted to get the bus when he was about six.”

She explained Daniel had always been interested in public transport but admitted his ability to remember routes, train lines, bus stops, platforms and interchange stations came as a complete shock.

Mrs Morrison continued: “At five he drew this fantastic map of the local bus route and the stops off by heart, I could not believe it.

“It was quite an intricate network of the bus routes and where they met.

“I said ‘where did you get that information from?’ because I did not see any maps - he did not copy it, he just remembered.

“I don’t know how he does it, I think he must have quite an unusual brain.”

But Daniel has a simple explanation for his mental ability.

“I decide to remember - it’s my choice to remember,” he said.

His biggest challenge now is to find the time to continue his travel research as it has taken a back seat since the birth of six-month-old Alfie.

Daniel continued: “He smiles at me and so I just spend most of my time with him.”

His school teachers have said he would make a good engineer but the youngster has his heart set on becoming a train driver.

A spokesman for South West Trains said: “We are chuffed that Daniel is such a train fan and I am sure that one day he will be driving a train rather than just watching them.”

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