The Tram Driver World Championship took place in Vienna: the team from Austria won.
The Tram Driver World Championship took place in Vienna, where the team from Vienna won, and the Spanish drivers from Tenerife finished in 13th place.
Imagine, there are real "Olympic Games" for tram drivers! This is not a joke. At these competitions, drivers show their skills: how skillfully they drive a tram, how accurately they brake and accelerate.
Recently, the World Tram Driver Championship took place in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Spain was represented by two drivers from the island of Tenerife, Sonia Yusef Perdomo and Oscar Luis Perdomo. They proudly carried the name of their island on trams.
This year, the competition was hosted by the Viennese tram company Wiener Linien. The championship was attended by 25 teams from different parts of the world, such as Florence, San Diego, Oran and Melbourne.
The aim of the championship is to show how skilled, accurate and safe tram drivers are. Participants competed in various tests: accurate stops, reversing, distance determination and complex maneuvers. There were also demonstration performances, such as tram bowling, to entertain the audience.
In addition to practical tasks, drivers took theoretical exams on knowledge of trams, the city of Vienna and its tram routes. The championship became a real celebration of public transport.
Vienna even organized the Öffi-Fest – a festival with interactive entertainment for people of all ages. It was possible to learn about the latest "green" technologies and the development of Vienna's transport network.
Over the weekend, Vienna transformed into the world capital of public transport. More than 50,000 people gathered to watch these amazing competitions. The team from Vienna won, the second place went to drivers from Poznań (Poland), and the third place went to Tampere (Finland).
Sonia and Oscar Luis from Tenerife also showed a good result, taking 13th place among 25 teams. They bypassed teams from Sweden, Morocco and Brazil, and almost caught up with France and Italy.
This proves that there are real professionals working in Tenerife! Although they did not win a medal, this experience highlighted how important the employees of Metrotenerife are, who help the residents of Tenerife get to work, home or other places on time every day.
The organizers invited all participants to compete next year in Warsaw, where the next European Tram Driver Championship will take place in 2026.