Last week, several reports appeared about the extensions of train driver cards issued by the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT). Due to a system error, train drivers who applied for an extension of their train driver card received a new card with an incorrect date. The first issue date was not printed on the card, but the date on which the extension was granted. Regulation (EU) No 36/2010 prescribes harmonized formats for train driver licenses.
Licenses that do not show the first issue date exactly do not fully comply with the prescribed model from the regulation. Deviations do not lead to invalidity of existing train driver licenses. The data on the card do not diminish the data on the basis of which the ILT granted the license to the driver. The fact that a different issue date appears on the card than is actually the case does not mean that a driver is unauthorized to perform their work. In this case, it also does not concern data relevant to establishing the identity or validity of the license.
Safety
The system error has been fixed since April 2025, and those who now apply for an extension of the train driver card receive it with the correct date. Replacing the other cards with an incorrect date is very labor- and cost-intensive. Considering the proportionality principle (article 3:4 Awb), immediate replacement of all existing train driver cards is not necessary. Immediate replacement would yield virtually no safety or supervision benefits; the correct issue date is known to the ILT and the train driver licenses have been lawfully granted. Future extensions will have the train driver cards adjusted with the issue date according to the model from the regulation.
Via the train driver register, the data of a driver can also be consulted abroad. The ILT therefore does not expect the current cards to cause problems when drivers cross borders. The ILT also informs, possibly redundantly, all foreign supervisors about an incorrect issue date on some train driver cards and the validity of the license.
Contact
For questions, contact via the chat. This is available on weekdays from 9:00 to 16:00. You can also call 088 - 489 00 00. The ILT is reachable by phone on weekdays from 8:30 to 17:00.