RSSB research supports lowering minimum train driver age to 18

The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has conducted research on the feasibility of reducing the minimum age of train drivers from 20 to 18. Other countries around Europe already allow 18 year olds to drive domestic trains, and they’re seeing the benefits.

RSSB's research showed existing training, competence, and safety systems could be deployed for younger entrants, so no new cost or special allowances need to be brought in. An 18 year old, regardless of their background, is just as capable of training to become a train driver as a 20 year old. 

Experience, rather than age, is a better predictor of driver performance. Skills including hazard perception, situational awareness, and decision making improve with exposure to a certain task.

RSSB CEO Mark Phillips said: ‘’Encouraging more school leavers to take up train driving apprenticeships is what our railways need. The prospect of joining the profession is more attractive to people at 18 than at 20, where the idea might be old news as you have already chosen a different path.

‘We can increase the number of people becoming train drivers as a first job and lower the average age of this vital role. Increasing the diversity and size of the candidate pool will challenge stereotypes and harness skills that are more prevalent in the next generation of career finders.

‘Many young people nowadays are not seeking a degree or traditional 9-5 office job and want a career where they can work largely unaided in a role that offers huge responsibility. Train driving is ideal for young people.

‘If we want more frequent rail services in our communities, to enable economic growth, then we need to have the professional workforce to deliver it. We need to lower the age of train drivers, and we need to do it now.’