Two tram drivers from Midland Metro have been selected to represent the UK in the European TramDriver Championships due to take place in Berlin over the weekend of 23 and 24 April. Cath Wood and Karol Wilski were selected by Midland Metro to make the trip to Europe where they will compete against tram driver from 16 other European nations.
The Championships take place every year in a different location with the selected drivers – from 17 different cities – being thoroughly assessed. The ingenious range of tests include stopping trams as close to a set of balloons tied to the tracks as possible without bursting them.
The two Midland Metro drivers are Karol Wilksi who has been working on the line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton for three years and Cath Wood has been a tram driver for 11 years making her own of the most experienced drivers on Midland Metro.
Paul Barefoot, Midland Metro Operations Director, has been named as “team coach”: “This is the first time we’ve entered this competition. But I’m confident in our drivers. People think tram driving is easy, but it takes such a lot of skill to drive these things. We’re going out there to win it for Britain, and I think Cath and Karol will put on a good show.”
Come on team midland hopefully next year Midland metro along with other UK tram systems enter as UK tram team.
What is the world speed record for a tram? Who holds it? Time trials and races on parallel tracks would be fun, and maybe we will see tram driving in the Olympic Games one day (once snooker, pool and darts have been admitted).
No Heritage category? 😉
The results are in! Team Budapest finished 1st with Team Leipzig in 2nd and Team Lyon in 3rd. The UK’s sole representative from Midland Metro finished 27th out of 27 teams.
So its basically like the tram equivalent of Eurovision it seems – nil points! 😉
To be fair have you seen them drive in Birmingham? 😉