CHILDREN'S favourite Thomas the Tank Engine could have paid his last visit to the region because a museum may not be able to afford to welcome him again.

More than 62,000 people flocked to the National Railway Museum (NRM) in February to see an exhibition based on the popular character and his friends.

Admission charges to the museum had been dropped less than three months earlier. However, during the Day Out with Thomas fortnight, visitors to the York attraction were charged £6 for entrance - to the fury of many who had expected free entry to the permanent collection.

The museum is now considering whether it would be viable to stage another Thomas exhibition during the next year's February half-term, as the admission charge is essential to cover costs.

In a letter to Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh, Government Arts Minister Tessa Blackstone said that she had raised the matter with the director of the National Museum of Science and Industry, of which the NRM is a part.

His verdict was that the decision to impose charges on visitors only wishing to see the permanent collection was a "misunderstanding" on the museum's part.

Graham Stratfold, the museum's head of visitor services, said the NRM had misunderstood permission granted by the Government to impose a Thomas entry fee.

It had wrongly thought that this entitled it to charge all visitors, he said.