Sorry, 3rd Directive will be testing, not training
While I agree that the intention of the 3rd Directive is progressive access through a dab of training, the last that we heard from the DfT is that they'll be going for a full re-test route, somewhat bizarrely because of concerns over costs of training (where do they think you're going to get your test bike from?)
This was in their 2010 consulation response document, but we don't know the actual details of their final implementation because they're currently about 10 months late in publishing them. Publication was required by 19th January 2011: the DfT's response to why they are so late is essentially "Eh, we'll do it when we're ready."
My personal suspicion is that they've actually sat down and read the Directive properly and gone "What. The. Fuuuu?" For example, they'd said that they plan to allow "direct access" to the A2 35kW license at 19, but there's simply no provision for that in the Directive - it requires a 2 year gap after passing the joke A1 license that virtually nobody currently has. That means that essentially nobody will be able to even sit an A2 test until 2015!
Worse, there's no mention of provisional licensing at all, so they may be having a 2nd look at solo L plate riding and wondering if it's only a question of time before Little Dead Johnny's parents sue the DfT for letting Johnny hoon around on a 125 on a license that's not recognised by 2006/126/EC.
Anyway, it's a laugh a minute trying to figure out what's going to happen when the 3rd Directive kicks in, but the take away point is this: it's going to be worse for everyone under 24, so do your test(s) now, right now, before word does get out and the training and test centres get chocka as the clock runs out on the January 19th 2013 kick off.
