Following on from the thread on UK Government proposals to reduce the minimum age for becoming a train driver from 20 to 18 at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/proposal-to-decrease-minimum-train-driver-age.267723/ does anyone know the minimum age for train drivers in any other European countries?
According to this story from the Evening Standard https://www.standard.co.uk/news/pol...ondon-age-teenager-limit-brexit-b1158210.html:
"[Transport Minister Huw Merriman] argued that Brexit allowed the minimum age for train drivers in the UK to be changed to 18, even though such a lower age limit exists in Belgium.
"The requirements to be a train driver in Britain derive from EU law and were established when the UK was an EU member.
"In 2010, Directive 2007/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the certification of train drivers operating locomotives and trains on the railway system in the Community (“the 2007 Directive”) was given effect in Britain by the Train Driving Licences and Certificates Regulations 2010.
"The Directive afforded some flexibility in this requirement, as member states were permitted to issue licences to persons as young as 18 years old, but such licences would only be valid in the territory of the issuing member state.
"Countries could therefore set a minimum age between 18 and 20 years for their own territory."
I've done an online search in German for "Mindestalter Lokführer" (minimum age train driver) and in French for "age minimum conducteur SNCF" (minimum age SNCF driver). The French search results seem to suggest that it's 18 in France, while the German search produced a number of different results most of which said it was 20 but one seemed to indicate that you could start training as a driver at 18 but could not qualify as a driver until you were 19 or 20.
All of this would suggest that the EU does not impose a blanket minimum age of 20, contrary to claims by the UK Government.
According to this story from the Evening Standard https://www.standard.co.uk/news/pol...ondon-age-teenager-limit-brexit-b1158210.html:
"[Transport Minister Huw Merriman] argued that Brexit allowed the minimum age for train drivers in the UK to be changed to 18, even though such a lower age limit exists in Belgium.
"The requirements to be a train driver in Britain derive from EU law and were established when the UK was an EU member.
"In 2010, Directive 2007/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the certification of train drivers operating locomotives and trains on the railway system in the Community (“the 2007 Directive”) was given effect in Britain by the Train Driving Licences and Certificates Regulations 2010.
"The Directive afforded some flexibility in this requirement, as member states were permitted to issue licences to persons as young as 18 years old, but such licences would only be valid in the territory of the issuing member state.
"Countries could therefore set a minimum age between 18 and 20 years for their own territory."
I've done an online search in German for "Mindestalter Lokführer" (minimum age train driver) and in French for "age minimum conducteur SNCF" (minimum age SNCF driver). The French search results seem to suggest that it's 18 in France, while the German search produced a number of different results most of which said it was 20 but one seemed to indicate that you could start training as a driver at 18 but could not qualify as a driver until you were 19 or 20.
All of this would suggest that the EU does not impose a blanket minimum age of 20, contrary to claims by the UK Government.