Kicker: A driving tram-pion

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Yesterday we had competitive parallel parking in Portland. Today

it’s competitive public-transit piloting in Poland. The National Tram-Driving Championship!

Drivers faced ten precision challenges behind the wheel of massive public transit trains. Events included everything from delicate stops to full-on tram bowling. That’s right, just as you might imagine.

Here’s one driver describing the difficulty.

FEMALE TRAM DRIVER: (Speaking in Polish)

Here’s my rough translation: "You want good follow-through, you’ve got to use the train to nudge a bowling ball just so to knock down all the pins, but the key is you’ve gotta not crash." Or words to that effect. My Polish is a little rusty.

The competition is meant to raise the profile of transit driving, and this thing is global! Two drivers earned an invite to the World Championship in Vienna this fall. So here’s hoping they can navigate those confusing foreign transit systems.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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