The World Tram Driver Masters had crowds in their thousands whooping and cheering as they watched this very special competition in downtown Vienna in mid-September. Some may have suspected the announcement of the event might be a publicity stunt by Vienna’s public transport operators “Wiener Linien”, but those in the know came along determined to enjoy proceedings and cheer the competitors on. There were also some who just happened to be passing and got caught up in the excitement.
It took a combination of ability, strong nerves, dexterity and maybe just a hint of home advantage to secure victory in the first World Tram Driver Championship for Austria. Florijan Isaku and Elisabeth Urbanitsch netted the gold medal in the team competition, with silver going to Poland and bronze to Norway. The singles event saw Thomas Langkopf (Germany) achieve first place, followed by Dariusz Graj (Poland) in second. Florijan Isaku (Austria) came in third, ensuring a second trip to the podium for his home country.
© Wiener Linien
© Wiener Linien
The first European Tram Driver Championship was held in Dresden in 2012 to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the local tram network, and rematches have since taken place regularly in various European cities with a tram network. The drivers always make use of the vehicles and equipment in operation in the host town.
The competitions attracted international attention, and this prompted Vienna to put on the first World Tram Driver Championship this year. Twenty-five two-person teams from six continents were put through their paces, showing their skill, experience and intuition in eight events: targeted braking, driving backwards, assessing lateral clearance, maintaining speed, “stop & go” (gentle departure and braking) and coming to an exact stop are just some of the disciplines that public transport passengers have the benefit of on a daily basis, even if they don’t always notice it. The tram drivers had a little bit of fun as they tried their hand at “tram curling” and “tram bowling”, earning an extra round of applause from the crowd.
This atmospheric tram festival was also the 160th anniversary celebration of Vienna’s tram system. Carriages were once pulled by horses, but the Austrian capital now boasts the sixth-largest tram network in the world. Vienna is also in the top tier as far as popularity goes; when the international media company Time Out set out to discover which city had the best public transport network, a survey of 18,500 respondents from 50 countries put Austria’s capital in second place in Europe (seventh place worldwide) – and Vienna’s public transport providers can now add the first European Tram Driver Championship to its proud list of achievements.
The journey continues – next stop, 2026’s European Tram Driver Championship in Warsaw, Poland.
