Melbourne’s Tramaroos team faced a challenging outing at the 2026 European TramDriver Championship, held on Saturday in Warsaw, finishing second last among 26 competing teams. Only London ranked lower in the competition, which featured a series of precision and skill-based challenges designed to reflect the daily tasks of tram drivers.
The championship tested participants across multiple events such as "smooth stop and go," where drivers navigated with a bowl of water affixed to the front of the tram, incurring penalties for spilled drops. Other events included maintaining a steady speed of 25 km/h, target braking, tram bowling, lateral distance control, basketball shooting from the tram, executing a perfect stop at the second door, and following whistle commands during a reverse ride.
The 2026 title was claimed by Vendula Tmejová and Zdeněk Rychtář representing Prague, Czech Republic. Australia, represented by the Tramaroos team from Yarra Trams, included drivers Ivan Cavanagh from the Southbank depot and Claudia Barrientos from the Kew depot. Australia had first joined the event in 2022 as the first non-European nation to participate. Cavanagh noted that a victory would have meant the trophy heading “straight to the pool room." Despite hopes for a strong showing, Daniel Bowen, spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association, acknowledged the stiff competition from European teams, likening the contest to Eurovision in terms of spirit and participation.
The event attracted thousands of spectators in Warsaw, while online viewership reached around 80,000 globally. Melbourne is scheduled to host the next championship in 2027. Bowen highlighted the possibility of more Australian cities entering future competitions, noting recent expansions in light rail systems across Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, and the Gold Coast.
He also emphasized the ongoing importance of trams within Melbourne’s public transport network, which is the largest in the world, and pointed to further opportunities to improve accessibility, on-road priority, and service frequency. The competition serves as a reminder of the skills required to operate trams and the role they play in urban mobility.