S-Bahn, U-Bahn, bus, streetcar – Vienna has them all. But there is a curious competition for the latter, which will be held in Vienna this year. The European Tram Championships have been taking place since 2012, and this year marks the first time that the Tram World Championships are being held. 25 teams from 25 nations are taking part and competing against each other in eight disciplines. If you can’t be there, you can follow the championship via livestream at tramwm.com.
📍 Location: Rathausplatz, 1010 Vienna
📅 Date: September 13, from 10 a.m.
💶 Price information: Free of charge
The history of the European Tram Championships
The idea originated in Germany: the very first European Tram Driving Championships were held in 2012 to mark the 140th anniversary of the Dresden streetcar. Since then, it has been organized annually in a European city by the local transport company. Vienna hosted the event once before in 2015. Now, 10 years later, our capital city has the honor of hosting the very first Tram World Championships.
Incidentally, we won the European Championship title once before in 2023 in Oradea, Romania. However, Budapest is the absolute leader, having won three championships. This year’s world championship is due to the demand from non-European streetcar operators who also want to compete.
The course of the World Tram Championships
The competition begins at 10 a.m. with a welcome and the introduction of the 25 teams. At 11 a.m., it’s time to get down to business when the actual championship enters the first round of competition. The riders compete in the first disciplines until 13:30. This is followed by a one-hour break with a cultural program before the second round of competition starts at 2:30 pm. The award ceremony for the first ever Tram World Champion will then take place at 5 pm.
The disciplines of the Tram World Championships
The following eight disciplines will be contested:
- Stop & Go: A cup filled with water must not be spilled during braking and starting if possible
- Maintain speed: With the speedometer covered, the streetcar drivers must drive exactly 25 km/h for 20 meters.
- Target braking: The streetcar must come to an exact stop at a specific ground marking.
- Streetcar bowling: A giant ball is launched from the streetcar to knock over as many air columns as possible.
- Driving backwards: A driver is in the cab while his team members try to guide him with arrows. The streetcar must be maneuvered backwards to a certain marker and come to a stop here.
- Lateral distance: A team member places an obstacle and the streetcar driver must try to get as close to it as possible without touching it.
- Exact stop: The streetcar must be brought to a stop so that the second door is exactly at a floor marker.
- Streetcar curling: The streetcar pushes a trolley and tries to accelerate it so that it arrives at a specific target area.
If you would like to familiarize yourself with the competitions in advance, you can find videos demonstrating the individual disciplines on the Wiener Linien website.
The participants
For Wiener Linien, Florijan Isaku and Elisabeth Urbanitsch prevailed against 40 other Bim drivers. In total, teams from 25 countries and 6 continents are taking part. These are the teams taking part in this year’s Tram World Championships:
- Berlin & Leipzig (Germany)
- Brno (Czech Republic)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Casablanca (Morocco)
- Dublin (Ireland)
- Edinburgh (Scotland)
- Florence (Italy)
- Hong Kong (China)
- Kiev (Ukraine)
- Melbourne (Australia)
- Oradea (Romania)
- Oran (Algeria)
- Oslo (Norway)
- Paris (France)
- Poznan (Poland)
- Riga (Latvia)
- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- San Diego (USA)
- Stockholm (Sweden)
- Tampere & Helsinki (Finland)
- Tenerife (Spain)
- Vienna (Austria)
- Zagreb (Croatia)