by co-founder of Tramjatra Roberto D’Andrea

“In a strange and wonderful way, Kolkata has helped keep Melbourne’s tram conducting tradition alive and on occasions we get to run the tram and ring the conductors bell. Conversation, eye contact and the ancient art of oral storytelling as we make our way along the moving platform has been preserved and enhanced in India. From Kalighat to Collingwood, Shyambazzar to St Kilda Beach, Belgatchia to Bundoora, Park Circus to Preston, Tollygunge to Toorak, Rajabazzar to Richmond, the Esplanade to Essendon and the MCG to Eden Gardens, it has been a privilege and joy to have tram conducted in two rare surviving tramways of continuous use, Kolkata and Melbourne”

Tram Conductors were once common in tramway cities across the world.

Today, we’re now listed as critically endangered and close to extinction. In Melbourne, which kept tram conductors in service until 1998, we’re in urgent need of a captive breeding program on the City Circle Tram line before the last of us pass on and with us goes the friendly larrikin spirit of the connies of old.

Some background: Tram conductor numbers grew from the late 1800s at a time when cities worldwide were laying tracks and building tramcars. There’s something beautiful about trams that saw many cities have small bands of friendly yarning conductors that loved the jungle of humanity. The decline started when tramway systems across the world were closed in the 1950s & 60s and replaced by cars, freeways and buses. In cities where tram systems survived, our numbers reduced again as automated ticketing systems started replacing tram conductors in the 1970’s and 80’s. By the late 1980’s, Melbourne and Calcutta were unique, not only did both cities retain their tramways, but they kept tram conductors into the modern era.

Melbourne is a city of gunzels and the only true surviving continuous use tramway in the English-speaking world. For 113 years from 1885 to 1998, Tram Conductors served Melbourne’s tram-loving community from the days of the cable trams through to the modern era & were affectionately called 'connies'. Melbourne had a love affair with these tram-uniformed humans who called ‘fares please’, checked & sold tickets & helped people to board trams. We carried maps in our leather conductors bags, called out ‘next stop’ & gave directions to hospitals, sporting stadiums & the beach etc. Trams were safe, dirty feet kept off seats & there was no graffiti. Famous connies like Frenchie entertained passengers with hat flipping tricks. There were yarning and storytelling conductors, singing conductors, poetry conductors and comic conductors. We travelled with you morning, noon and night. In 1990, when the government of the day wanted to remove tram conductors and replace us with scratch tickets, Melbourne’s trammies protested. A 33 day tram blockade of the city became known to all as the tram conductors dispute. It was in the build up to the blockade that poet and cartoonist Michael Leunig wrote this poem.

Tram Conductors anniversary video (2008)

“Dear God, save the tram conductors. Protect them for they are our protectors and help them for they are our helpers. Preserve the human touch they bring and the human presence they provide. Save us too from the follies and brutalities of governments and all those who dehumanise our world in the name of cost efficiency. They have forgotten what life is for and why we are here. Help them to remember. Help us all to remember. Amen."

Kolkata Melbourne Tramjatra - Planting the Tram Friendship seed.

“When a friendly, larrikin spirited tram conductor arrived in Calcutta in 1994, he was surprised to find another mob of friendly, larrikin spirited trammies in the Esplanade. When he introduced himself as a ‘tram wallah’ from Australia and did some tram theatre to explain who he was, the response was immediate and inquisitive. He happened to find himself onboard a Belgatchia Depot tram and the Calcutta Tramway Company (CTC) trammies immediately sat him down and invited him to the depot. There was much excitement as they took him on a guided tour, and he still remembers that first tram ride along College Street and Bidhan Sarani via the Shyambazar 5 ways to Belgatchia Depot. He was blown away by Calcutta, the colour, smells, architecture, street vendors, book stalls and women wearing colourful saris. Both his parents are Sicilian so Calcutta felt like a big Catania, a little disorganised and noisy with cars tooting constantly. The sound of the gong (tram drivers bell) was soothing and familiar. At the depot they played like tram children for the day. He was introduced to the starter, taken to meet other trammies in the mess room, they drank chai in little clay pots and went into the depot shed to meet maintenance staff and check out wooden and steel bodied trams. They talked all day. The trammies who spoke english, translated the conversations into Bengali for other trammies. It felt strangely similar, Melbourne’s tramway had plenty in common. Tram drivers, tram conductors, starters calling out when the next tram was due to depart and their trams had controllers and air brakes just like our W Class Trams. They wore khaki coloured uniforms, we wore green uniforms. The conductor would ring 1 bell to stop, 2 bells to signal to the driver that it was all clear to depart and 3 bells to quickly stop the tram in an emergency. They had small leather conductor bags with paper tickets, we had larger leather bags with multi modal cardboard tickets. We clipped our tickets with a ticket punch while they tore a small section of the ticket to validate the journey and kept folded rupee notes between their fingers. After spending his first day on Indian soil at Belgatchia Depot, it was dark by the time he left and took him back to the Esplanade on another tram route, this time via Chitpur and BBD Bagh along the beautiful narrow street, Rabindra Sarani. They exchanged addresses and he said that many of his gunzel, tram enthusiast friends in Melbourne would be keen to know how things were tracking in Calcutta. On a sad note, they told him their tramway was under threat of closure. He had 3 days by myself in Calcutta before Sarina, his tram driving girlfriend would arrive from Darjeeling, so on each of the days he caught trams to all destinations. There was something very different about their tram track which was in poor condition with many broken rail joints and sometimes trams became stranded due to poor power supply or trolley poles getting tangled in the overhead electrical wires. Little did he know that a tram friendship seed had been sown, and that 30 plus years later they’d still be still Tramjatra friends”.

Tramjatra Tram Conductors

Performance tram conducting is one of the central components of the Kolkata Melbourne Tramjatra. We’ve brought that friendly larrikin spirit of the Melbourne connie and have been greeted with open arms by tram workers and passengers alike. The media like us as well and everyone enjoys collecting the many different Tramjatra tickets and cards that we’ve made over the years. We’ve ‘trained’ many new performing conductors as a part of Tramjatra, with this tradition going back to our early days of tramway friendship. I was a conductor trainer in Melbourne and have enjoyed this part of our tram festival offerings. The 2025 Sundarban Tramjatra had 3 performing conductors, Tony ‘Tonza’ Graham, Sajal Mondal and I. Tony joined me in 2023 for the 150th anniversary of Kolkata’s tramway and mastered the art of yarning, clipping tickets and cross pollinating people beautifully. Sajal came to us this year and we started training him in the Sundarban. He has a theatre background and speaks fluent Bengali (his mother tongue) Hindi and English and helped broaden the way we could communicate with people with a new series of cards - Climate Tigers, Sundarban biodiversity and 8 new tram tickets done in retro style. Another special part of the Sundarban Tramjatra was giving our team and volunteers, Mick Douglas’s specially designed Tramtactic bags, so at times we had a big mob of connies as witnessed at the launch of the event. A special mention to all past Tramjatra conductor-connies, who have been a part of this unique friendship. Friend and fellow tram lover, Andy Miller conducted in 2001 and together we dressed up school children who loved clipping tickets and walking along the moving platform, on the Cricket tram we dressed some of the women poets. Fellow environment connie Craig Allen was a superb conductor on the Paribeshbandhu tram in 2012 and our tram enthusiast friends like Deep Das like strapping on the leather bag to help keep the tradition alive. Over the years I’ve been taught some Bengali by trammies and many a Kolkatan and it’s been a joy to speak a few words in the local lingo which brings a smile and giggle to people’s faces. There’s some other artistic ‘tram traditions’ we’ve brought from Melbourne that have been central when we Tramjatra. Artists and the community painting and decorating trams inside and out and tram theatre where plays are staged on the moving platform.

Before departing we’ll leave you with some recent pics of the Melbourne Tram Conductors dispute, early days conducting from the Calcutta Melbourne Tramway friendship and everything in between to the recently staged Sundarban Tramjatra. Long live the tramways of Melbourne and Kolkata and thanks for the 30 plus years of Tramjatra friendship.

India Link online article - 'KEEPING TRAMS ON TRACK'