The first time I heard his deep but spritely voice was on a packed tram taking me from Melbourne’s Docklands to Richmond.
I was running late for a trivia night and feeling a bit flustered, but relieved to spot a free seat amidst the crowd.
I plonked myself down and plugged in my headphones – and that’s when I noticed that everyone on the tram was laughing.
Baffled, I paused my podcast and heard the driver of the tram singing and speaking Korean.
It turned out a K-pop artist was playing at the Rod Laver Arena that evening – and most of the tram’s passengers were headed there.
It was clear that the driver had researched what was happening in the city, learned a few phrases of Korean, and gone above and beyond to make his passengers’ day, with almost all of them smiling and waving at him as they disembarked.
This is how I first met Bruce Whalley, Melbourne’s happiest tram driver.
Although I hadn’t heard of Bruce Whalley before that fateful tram journey, it turns out he has quite a reputation.
The moustachioed driver has appeared in multiple television segments, had a documentary made about him, and even got a mention in parliament in 2022 for his tireless efforts to boost community morale. In 2000, he was named Community Champion of the City of Melbourne.
When I arrived at the iconic Tram Cafe on La Trobe Street (where else?) to meet him for this interview, he was cheerily chatting with the staff and filming a video to promote the business on social media.
I had expected nothing less from the 71-year-old, who makes a mission of spreading positivity everywhere he goes.
“It doesn’t take much to put a smile on people’s faces,” Whalley told me over our lattes and cupcakes. “I love what I do, and I find it incredibly rewarding.”
Whalley took up tram driving after stepping down from running his own marketing company.
“We had offices throughout Australia – former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was probably my most famous client!” he shared.
“When I retired from marketing, I took up tram driving, only intending to do it for two years, and I’m still there 12 years later.
“It’s given me so much more than I ever could have imagined. It’s not a job for me. It’s a reason to leap out of bed.”
Whalley has been interested in trams and trains all his life.
“I grew up in Camberwell and spent a lot of time around those gorgeous old trams, they called them toast rack trams,” he said.
“The seats were all polished timber and depending on which way the tram was going, the back of these seats would flip one way or the other.
“And if the tram was busy you could stand on running boards outside and hang on!”
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He was partly inspired to become a driver by Lenny Bates, Melbourne’s longest-serving tram driver, who happily ferried passengers around for more than 56 years.
“He was famous for telling stories,” Whalley said. “He knew the connections of every bus and every other tram route, and he would wait for the connections to make sure all the passengers got where they needed to go.
“Passengers loved him – but Lenny wasn’t the fastest driver on the network!”
Like Bates, Whalley wants to make a positive impact on the community.
He shared some of the feedback he has received over the years from passengers – or “the Tramily”, as he likes to call them.
“So many people have said that they were having the worst day of their lives until they got on my tram, and I managed to bring a smile to their faces,” he said. “I know how little it takes to bring someone from a low point to a different place, and that is a really good thing.”
One of Whalley’s favourite hobbies is motorcycle racing – and he even holds an Australian Land Speed Record. Racing might be an unusual hobby for a 71-year-old, but it’s not that surprising when you witness how much energy this man has.
Once, at a race meeting, a woman approached him and asked if he drove a tram.
“She said she had been on a tram I was driving with her dad, and they were going to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre,” he remembered.
“She said he only lived three months after that, but he talked about that tram journey all the time.
“That meant so much to me, to be able to make a small difference like that.”
Although Whalley only drives part-time now, he’s invested countless hours in language learning to strengthen his connection with passengers.
He now knows a few phrases in more than 35 languages, from Irish to Vietnamese to Arabic.
“I’m working on Mongolian and Tibetan at the moment,” he said.
“There’s a Mongolian woman who works at one of the shops that I pick up on a regular basis, and she’s teaching me.”
He’s had a passion for languages since travelling around the world as a young man.
“I’ve lived in other countries, and I’ve realised how isolating it can be when you don’t speak the language,” he said.
“It’s great to be able to bridge that gap, communicate with people and make them feel connected.”
He admits he struggled with Mandarin for about a year due to the intonations.
“Sometimes you roll the dice, and you get it wrong,” he laughed. “But I’m pretty good now.”
Whalley is showing no signs of slowing down and hopes to celebrate his 100th birthday behind the wheel.
“I’ve got no need to retire,” he said. “Why would I ever give this up?”
The views expressed in this article are Bruce Whalley’s own and do not represent any organisation.
