W11 Tram Melbourne, Replica of Karachi's W11 Bus

Months of planning, preparation and hard work had all led to this moment; the launch of Karachi W11 tram by the Minister for Commonwealth Games Justin Madden before the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The decorators were adorned in garlands of flowers at the launch.

The tram then completed a course of 16 days around the City Circle route, hosting over 80,000 people. During their journey, they were given a souvenir ticket which had traditional truck art poetry written on it.

To mimic what the conductors do in Karachi the W11 tram also had a conductor who belonged to The Connies, a performance troupe of tram conductors.

Robert D'Andrea who performed the conducting duties is still amazed at peoples' reactions.

"Performing tram conductors would jump out of the tram to call out the stops. Once everyone was inside they would bang the side of the tram and head back inside,” recalls Robert D’Andrea.