Innovia Metro is an
automated
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
system manufactured by
Alstom
Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...
. Innovia Metro systems run on conventional metal rails and pull power from a
third rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...
, but are powered by a
linear induction motor
A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristic ...
that provides traction by pulling on a "fourth rail" (a flat aluminum slab) placed between the running rails. A new version of the technology being marketed by Bombardier is compatible with standard electric rotary propulsion.
The design was originally developed in the 1970s by the
Urban Transportation Development Corporation
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) was a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced l ...
(UTDC), a
Crown corporation
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
owned by the government of
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada. It was designed as a system that would provide economic rapid transit service in the
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
s, which would have ridership levels between what a bus could serve at the low-end, or a subway at the high-end. During development, the system was known as the ICTS (Intermediate Capacity Transit System). The ICTS was chosen for lines in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, and
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
. Further sales were not forthcoming and the Ontario government lost interest in the company, selling it to
Lavalin Lavalin was a Canadian civil engineering and construction firm based in Montreal, Quebec. After a major expansion program in the 1980s that led to financial difficulties, in 1991 Lavalin merged with its long-time competitor, Surveyer, Nenniger & Che ...
of Quebec in 1986. Lavalin ran into serious financial difficulties and the UTDC returned to Ontario control, only to be immediately sold to Bombardier.
Bombardier used the name Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) after its acquisition of the technology. Bombardier has been much more active in developing and promoting this system, introducing a major new revision and winning several additional sales in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Beijing
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Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera''
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, su ...
and
Yongin
Yongin () is a city in the Seoul Capital Area, the largest in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. With a population over 1 million, the city has developed rapidly since the 21st century, recording the highest population growth of any city in the count ...
, near
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
. The latest version of the technology is marketed as the Innovia Metro, while previous models are retroactively branded as Innovia ART. The largest Innovia Metro system today is part of the
Vancouver SkyTrain
SkyTrain is the medium-capacity rapid transit system in the Metro Vancouver Regional District, serving Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SkyTrain has of track and uses fully automated trains on grade-separated tracks running on underground ...
metro network, which has seen several major expansions over its lifetime. It operates just under of track compatible with Innovia Metro trains. Vancouver was the first to order Innovia Metro 300 vehicles. Since then, vehicle orders for the latest Innovia Metro technology have been made by transit authorities in Kuala Lumpur and Riyadh.
History
Development stage
During the 1950s, Toronto experienced the same sort of
urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
that was sweeping through the United States. This caused enormous traffic problems within the city, and a network of new highways to address the problem became part of the Official Plan in 1959.
[Sewell, pg. 68] By the mid-1960s, there was a growing awareness that
the growth of the suburbs led to a
flight of capital
Capital flight, in economics, occurs when assets or money rapidly flow out of a country, due to an event of economic consequence or as the result of a political event such as regime change or economic globalization. Such events could be an increas ...
from the city cores, resulting in the
urban decay
Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...
being seen throughout the US leading to
freeway revolts
Highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) are organized protests against the planning or construction of highways, freeways, expressways, and other civil engineering projects that favor vehicles.
Many freeway r ...
across North America. Activists such as
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book '' The Death and Life of Great American Cities ...
successfully rallied local groups to oppose development of the
Spadina Expressway
William R. Allen Road, also known as Allen Road, the Allen Expressway and colloquially as the Allen, is a short expressway and arterial road in Toronto. It starts as a controlled-access expressway at Eglinton Avenue West, heading north to just ...
project. The government reconsidered and cancelled the construction of the Spadina Expressway and other planned expressways.
Instead of expressways,
Bill Davis
William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the member of provincial Parliament for Peel in the 1959 provincia ...
and his new Minister of Transport,
Charles MacNaughton
Charles Steel MacNaughton (May 15, 1911 – November 20, 1987) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1958 to 1973 who represented the central Ontario riding of ...
, outlined the "
GO-Urban GO-Urban was a planned mass transit project for Greater Toronto to be operated by GO Transit. The system envisioned the use of automated guideway transit vehicles set up in hydro corridors and other unused parcels of land to provide rapid transit ...
" plan. GO-Urban called for a system of three advanced mass transit lines that would be run by the newly formed
GO Transit
GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...
. The idea was to select a system with low capital costs, one that would be cost effective in low-density areas where a traditional
subway would be too expensive to build and operate. Designed to have a design capacity half-way between buses and subways, the new system was referred to as the Intermediate Capacity Transit System or ICTS. The
space age
The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events, beginning with the Sputnik_1#Launch_and_mission, launch of Sputnik 1 ...
automated guideway transit
An automated guideway transit (AGT) or automated fixed-guideway transit or automatic guideway transit system is a type of fixed guideway transit infrastructure with a riding or suspension track that supports and physically guides one or more dr ...
(AGT) systems being designed in the late 1960s seemed like the right solution.
Toronto was not the only city looking for such a solution, and there appeared to be a large market for automated transit systems in the 1970s and 80s. As GO-Urban was larger than most networks being considered, practically every company working on an AGT, or hoping to, submitted a proposal. The first cut reduced the field to a still-large fourteen proposals. After a year-long selection process, GO selected the
Krauss-Maffei Transurban
Krauss-Maffei's Transurban was a 12-passenger automated guideway transit (AGT) mass transit system based on a maglev guideway. Development started in 1970 as one of the many AGT and PRT projects that followed in the wake of the HUD reports of 1968 ...
maglev
Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation''), is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage ...
as the preferred solution. As a maglev, the system would be silent, addressing concerns about noise on elevated portions of the track. Additionally, the system's
linear induction motor
A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristic ...
did not require physical contact for traction, which meant it would run with equal capacity in snow or icy conditions.
Krauss-Maffei
KraussMaffei is a German manufacturer of injection molding machines, machines for plastics extrusion technology, and reaction process machinery. It was acquired by ChemChina in 2016.
History Locomotives
KraussMaffei was formed in 1931 from a me ...
agreed to do all vehicle construction in Ontario, and allow the local office to handle all sales efforts in North America – a stipulation most US companies were not willing to agree to. Local testing, construction and sales were centralized in the newly created "Ontario Transportation Development Corporation" (OTDC).
Mike Filey
Mike Filey (October 11, 1941 – July 30, 2022) was a Canadian historian, radio host, journalist and author. He was awarded the Jean Hibbert Memorial Award in 2009 for promoting the city of Toronto and its history.
Early life
Born in 1941 in ...
, "Toronto Sketches 5: The Way We Were", Dundurn Press, 1997, , pg. 38–40
Construction of a test track on the grounds of the
Canadian National Exhibition
The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Canadian Labour Day, ...
started in late 1975, but shortly after this Krauss-Maffei announced that development funding provided by the German government was ending. Ontario was not willing to continue funding development of the system on their own, and cancelled the maglev plans.
Rebirth
Instead of returning to their earlier submissions, the OTDC decided to press ahead with many portions of the existing ICTS design. On April 14, 1975, the Ministry of Transportation arranged financing for Phase I and II studies to develop the new version. In June 1975, OTDC announced that it had arranged a consortium to continue the development of the ICTS, changing their name to "Urban Transportation Development Corporation" (
UTDC
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) was a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced l ...
) to avoid any "provinciality" during their efforts to market the design to other cities.
[Litvak & Maule, pg. 93]
The result was essentially a larger, rubber-wheeled version of the original maglev vehicle. The consortium included of
SPAR Aerospace
SPAR Aerospace was a Canadian aerospace company. It produced equipment for the Canadian Space Agency to be used in cooperation with NASA's Space Shuttle program, most notably the Canadarm, a remote manipulator system.
The company went through a ...
for the
linear induction motor
A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristic ...
,
Standard Elektrik Lorenz
C. Lorenz AG (1880–1958) was a German electrical and electronics firm primarily located in Berlin. It innovated, developed, and marketed products for electric lighting, telegraphy, telephony, radar, and radio. It was acquired by ITT in 1930 and ...
(SEL) for the automatic control system,
Dofasco
ArcelorMittal Dofasco is a steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Dofasco is a standalone subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest integrated steel producer.
History
Clifton and Frank A. Sherman founded Dominion Foundries and ...
for the
bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
s,
Alcan
Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During t ...
and
Canadair
Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada. In 1986, its assets were acquired by Bombardier Aerospace, the aviation division of Canadian transport conglomerate Bombardier Inc.
Canadair's origins lie in the establishm ...
for the design of the car bodies and a set of prototypes, and Canadair as the overall prime contractor.
[Litvak & Maule, pg. 88] The arrangements, funding and final system definitions were in place by 1976.
[AppaRao, pg. 3]
Between 1976 and 1980, three prototype cars were built. The first immediately demonstrated a problem with the rubber-wheeled bogies. The linear induction motor required very accurate positioning about above its "reaction rail" in order to work efficiently and the slight give in the wheels was enough to make this a problem.
The obvious solution to this would be to use steel wheels instead, but that would re-introduce the noise problem as the trains rounded curves in the tracks. A new solution was selected, using steel wheels with an
articulated bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of tran ...
that would steer each
wheel set
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be ...
into the direction of the track and thereby avoid the rubbing between the flange and track that caused the screeching noise. UTDC bought two modern articulated bogie patents from a private developer in the United States, which were further developed by
Dofasco
ArcelorMittal Dofasco is a steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Dofasco is a standalone subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest integrated steel producer.
History
Clifton and Frank A. Sherman founded Dominion Foundries and ...
.
[Litvak & Maule, pg. 99]
A dedicated test facility was desired; modelled after the similar
Transit Testing Center
Transit may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film
* ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world
* ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...
set up in the US as part of their own mass transit developments, the site would be open to use for any company that wanted to test new technologies without the need to build out their own testing sites. A site in Millhaven, outside of
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...
, was selected for the new test centre. Kingston had been home to the
Canadian Locomotive Company
The Canadian Locomotive Company, commonly referred to as CLC, was a Canadian manufacturer of railway locomotives located in Kingston, Ontario. Its works were located on the south side of Ontario Street between William and Gore streets on Kingston' ...
that closed its doors in 1969, and the city lobbied hard for the new company to locate to their city.
The site was officially opened on September 29, 1978, by
James Snow
James Wilfred Snow (July 12, 1929 – September 13, 2008) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1985 who represented the GTA ridings of Halton ...
, the Minister of Transportation and Communications. The site included a oval test track that included at-grade, elevated and ramped sections, switches, and the automatic control centre. Phase III of the ICTS program ended on January 31, 1980, when testing on the prototype was completed at the Millhaven site, by this point the government had invested about $57.2 million, of a total $63 million spent on the product by the government and its industrial partners.
[Litvak & Maule, pg. 103]
Initial sales
By the late 1970s, it appeared there were no more technology issues to overcome and efforts turned to debugging the system and developing methods for mass production. As this process started, UTDC started its own efforts to market the design. Toronto, the inspiration for the system, was an obvious target, but the company also found interest in the system in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
,
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
,
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
A test system in Toronto was the primary concern. With the GO-Urban concept having since been cancelled, and
GO Transit
GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...
having turned to conventional
heavy rail
Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas:
Rapid transit
A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid accelerati ...
systems, the only suitable local market was the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
(TTC). The TTC had recently extended the east–west
Bloor-Danforth subway line with the addition of another station on each end of the line, and had planned to further extend the line with
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s running from those stations into the suburbs. Construction had already started on the streetcar system at the eastern end of the line at
Kennedy station
Kennedy is both a terminal and interchange station on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth and Line 3 Scarborough of the Toronto subway system. Opened in 1980, it is located east of the Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue intersection. With the adjacent Kenn ...
.
The provincial government asked the TTC to switch the streetcar line to the ICTS. The TTC was uninterested until the government threatened to pull their financing, which accounted for 75% of its capital budget. In exchange, the government agreed to pay for any cost overruns above the original streetcar budget. Construction of the internal streetcar platform and a turn-around loop had already been completed at the station. The platform had to be raised to the higher floor height of the ICTS, but UTDC claimed the vehicle would be able to make its way around the existing radius loop at without additional modification.
Vancouver proved very interested in the system on its own merits. As early as 1978, the city had been planning a transportation-themed event for its centennial in 1986, and in 1980 they won the rights to host the
Expo '86
The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...
World's Fair, giving it the theme "Transportation and Communications". The city is newer than Toronto and more spread out, making a traditional subway unattractive – precisely the problem that the ICTS had been designed to solve. The ICTS vehicle design, with shorter vehicle heights, was also ideal, as the old heavy-rail
Dunsmuir Tunnel
The Dunsmuir Tunnel is a subway tunnel below Dunsmuir Street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The tunnel is used by the Expo Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. It is located downtown and has Burrard and Granville ...
in downtown Vancouver could be easily modified and split into two stacked tunnels. With UTDC interested in showcasing the system at the Expo, and the Expo backers interested in a transit solution that could be open in time for the show, a deal was quickly arranged that was attractive to both parties. At the time, it was a somewhat controversial project and had its detractors.
[Michael Keating, "$61 million experiment could go down the drain.", ''The Globe and Mail'' p. P5]
Detroit had been one of six cities selected for rapid development under the United States
Urban Mass Transportation Administration
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...
(UMTA)
Downtown People Mover (DPM) program. After ten years, little actual development had taken place and UMTA was mandated to install systems with all possible speed. None of the high-tech developments funded by UMTA had been installed, nor developed to the point where they were ready for service. Instead, the Detroit system was favouring the
Cabinentaxi
Cabinentaxi, sometimes Cabintaxi in English, was a German people mover development project undertaken by Demag and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm with funding and support from the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie (BMFT, the German Mini ...
system from Germany, but that company decided to pull out of the contest in order to focus on a larger development in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. The UTDC responded to a "buy American" clause in UMTA by opening a branch office in Detroit, and that immediately swung the decision in their favour. However, with the
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
administration taking office in 1981, DPM was rapidly de-funded. Four of the five cities ended their development plans, but Detroit and Miami (using a different design) decided to press ahead with their deployments.
Construction of the Toronto and Vancouver systems proceeded apace, with the
Scarborough RT
Line 3 Scarborough (originally known as the Scarborough RT or SRT) is a light rapid transit line that is part of the Toronto subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line runs entirely within the suburban district of Scarborough, encompass ...
opening for service on March 22, 1985, followed by the
SkyTrain on December 11, 1985, with passenger service starting in January.
Hiatus
Sales of additional ICTS systems went nowhere, and the government began to worry about UTDC's continued successes. The government pushed any potential deployment to buy from UTDC, but with only one product, and that product having many problems in Toronto, there was little interest from other cities. At the same time, the buy-UTDC clause locked
Hawker Siddeley Canada
Hawker Siddeley Canada was the Canadian unit of the Hawker Siddeley Group of the United Kingdom and manufactured railcars, subway cars, streetcars, aircraft engines and ships from the 1960s to 1980s.
History
Founded in 1962 as the Canadian divi ...
out of many local projects, and they had formerly been a major supplier in the local market. The solution was to form a 50–50 combined company, Can-Car Rail, who marketed the combined product line. Hawker had a number of successful products, notably their
Bombardier BiLevel Coach
The Bombardier BiLevel Coach is a bilevel passenger railcar currently built by Alstom and previously by Bombardier, Hawker Siddeley Canada, the Canadian Car and Foundry (Can Car), and the UTDC. Used by North American commuter rail operators, ...
, and as these other products were selling well through this period, interest in actively selling ICTS waned.
In spite of Can-Car's success in other markets, as early as 1981 the government had considered selling UTDC to the private sector. Their concern was that without a manufacturing business, UTDC would find it difficult to make enough income to justify its Kingston operations. If the company did start a manufacturing side, it would be inappropriate for the company to remain government owned.
[Litvak & Maule, pg. 105] The Can-Car deal put this on hold for a time.
In 1986 the new Ontario government announced their intention to sell UTDC to
Lavalin Lavalin was a Canadian civil engineering and construction firm based in Montreal, Quebec. After a major expansion program in the 1980s that led to financial difficulties, in 1991 Lavalin merged with its long-time competitor, Surveyer, Nenniger & Che ...
, a large engineering company in Montreal. Lavalin purchased the company for only CAD$50 million, less than the $70 million spent on the UTDC by the government up to 1981.
The sale was highly controversial at the time, due to several non-performance payments due to the early problems on the ICTS that had to be paid out by the government, to the tune of $39 million. Soon after, Hawker Siddeley announced that they were selling their remaining interest in Can-Car to Lavalin as well.
Innovia ART
A series of financial difficulties caused by Lavalin's rapid expansion led to its bankruptcy. A clause in the original sales contract returned UTDC to Ontario crown control, and they quickly sold it to Bombardier in 1991. Bombardier started a redesign effort for the ICTS, resulting in the larger, advanced rapid transit (ART) Mark II vehicle. Compared to the original ICTS (retroactively named Mark I), the newer ART cars are longer with more seating, and have a more open layout inside.
ART technology was selected for the
AirTrain JFK
AirTrain JFK is an elevated people mover system and airport rail link serving John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK Airport) in New York City. The driverless system operates 24/7 and consists of three lines and nine stations within the ...
project, which is widely considered a great success in spite of predictions to the contrary. After winning the SkyTrain
Millennium Line
The Millennium Line is the second line of the SkyTrain rapid transit system in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The line is owned and operated by BC Rapid Transit Company, a subsidiary of TransLink, and links the cities ...
contract in Vancouver, Bombardier further improved the design by introducing an articulating section between adjacent cars, replacing the coupling and doors of the older Mark I design. The articulation allows passengers to move freely between the cars, as well as adding more internal space for passenger seating. These versions of the Mark II design won several more contracts, and are currently operating on the
Kelana Jaya Line
The LRT Kelana Jaya Line is a medium-capacity light rapid transit (LRT) line and the first fully automated and driverless rail system in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. It forms a part of the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System in and around ...
in Kuala Lumpur, the
Airport Express, Beijing Subway
The Capital Airport Express of the Beijing Subway (), also known by the initials ABC, Airport Beijing City, is an airport rail link from Beixingqiao station to the Beijing Capital International Airport. The line became operational on July 19, ...
in China (in four-car trains), and the YongIn
EverLine
EverLine is a fully automated driverless people mover line in Yongin, Seoul Capital Area connecting Everland, South Korea's most popular theme park, to Bundang Line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. The system is identical to AirTrain JFK people ...
near Seoul in South Korea. When Bombardier started marketing ART as part of its
Bombardier Innovia
Innovia is a product line of fully automated and driverless transportation systems offered by Alstom. Originally Innovia only referred to the automated people mover technology acquired from Adtranz in 2001. Innovia now refers to the following autom ...
family of automated transit systems, the technology was rebranded as the Innovia ART 100 for the Mark I and Innovia ART 200 for the Mark II.
Vancouver continues to be the largest operator of an Innovia ART system, with of operational lines in its SkyTrain network (Expo Line and Millennium Line). This network increased in 2016 with the opening of a extension of the Millennium Line, named the
Evergreen Extension
The Evergreen Extension (previously known as the Evergreen Line) is a extension of the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The extension runs from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby to Lafarge Lake–Douglas in Co ...
. The SkyTrain system uses a mixed fleet of Innovia ART 100 and 200 cars, with new Innovia Metro 300 cars (the latest model of ART technology) rolling out on the system.
Innovia Metro
The latest version of the technology uses the name "Innovia Metro" and is marketed as a mid-size metro system. Innovia Metro is compatible with Bombardier's own CITYFLO 650 integrated transit automation system and is offered in variants compatible with both linear motor and electric rotary propulsion. Bombardier now markets the Innovia Metro alongside the larger
Movia Metro and has touted its system versatility.
The first rotary-powered Innovia Metro 300 vehicles were ordered by
Riyadh Metro
The Riyadh Metro ( ar, قطار الرياض ', ) is a rapid transit system under construction in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. It is part of the King Abdulaziz Project for Riyadh Public Transport and will consist of six metro lines ...
in Saudi Arabia for Line 3 of its new
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
network. Those 47 vehicles will be equipped with Bombardier's MITRAC propulsion drives.
Design
Control and signalling
The ICTS was the original platform for the
SelTrac
SelTrac is a digital railway signalling technology used to automatically control the movements of rail vehicles. It was the first fully automatic moving-block signalling system to be commercially implemented.
What is now branded as SelTrac wa ...
automated control system by
Standard Elektrik Lorenz
C. Lorenz AG (1880–1958) was a German electrical and electronics firm primarily located in Berlin. It innovated, developed, and marketed products for electric lighting, telegraphy, telephony, radar, and radio. It was acquired by ITT in 1930 and ...
. This system has changed hands several times since then and is currently owned by
Thales
Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded him ...
. SelTrac is a completely automated system, with centralized control. The system originally used a
current loop
In electrical signalling an analog current loop is used where a device must be monitored or controlled remotely over a pair of conductors. Only one current level can be present at any time.
A major application of current loops is the industry de ...
in the track bed to signal to and from the vehicles, but this has been replaced in more modern versions with a variety of radio systems.
In the original system, the current loop also provided positioning by crossing the lines every metre, with an onboard sensor counting the number of times the polarity changed. Additional fine-tuning was available via a wheel rotation counter, which was used for positioning in stations.
The
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
union,
ATU
Atu may refer to:
* Atu, a character in Samoan mythology
* Atu Bosenavulagi, an Australian rules footballer
* Atu, Iran, a village in Iran
* Atu Moli, New Zealand rugby union player
* Atu'u is a village on Tutuila Island, American Samoa
ATU may re ...
Local 113, rejected automated control as they felt this was the start of a switch to automating the entire fleet, thereby cutting some of the highest paid jobs in the TTC. This led to the Scarborough Rapid Transit vehicles being modified at a high cost to include operator cabins and conventional controls. No other Innovia Metro system uses manual control.
The Innovia Metro 300 systems are marketed to use Bombardier's own
CITYFLO 650 automation system, but can also use other automation systems, such as
SelTrac
SelTrac is a digital railway signalling technology used to automatically control the movements of rail vehicles. It was the first fully automatic moving-block signalling system to be commercially implemented.
What is now branded as SelTrac wa ...
.
Linear motor
The original versions of Innovia Metro were based on a
linear induction motor
A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristic ...
(LIM) using vehicle-mounted
windings
An electromagnetic coil is an electrical conductor such as a wire in the shape of a coil (spiral or helix). Electromagnetic coils are used in electrical engineering, in applications where electric currents interact with magnetic fields, in de ...
and a track-mounted
stator
The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors or biological rotors. Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotating component of the system. In an electric mot ...
consisting of a thin aluminum plate mounted flat between the
rails
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
. The small size and flat shape of the
motor
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
, and its lack of a transmission connected to the
bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
s, allows the ART to be much closer to the ground than a traditional subway car. The motor is used for all control with the exception of
emergency braking using conventional
shoes
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture t ...
onto the
wheel rim
The rim is the "outer edge of a wheel, holding the tire". It makes up the outer circular design of the wheel on which the inside edge of the tire is mounted on vehicles such as automobiles. For example, on a bicycle wheel the rim is a large ...
.
The new Innovia Metro still offers linear motor propulsion as the advantageous option but an electric rotary propulsion version is also an option. The first rotary-powered Innovia Metro 300 system is being implemented in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Vehicle
The Innovia Metro vehicle was built using a lightweight aluminum frame riding on two sets of articulated trucks using small steel wheels. The original Innovia ART 100 cars are long. The second generation Innovia ART 200 cars are long each and come in
articulated pairs.
By 2011, the Innovia ART 200 design has been updated and Bombardier is currently marketing the third generation as Innovia Metro 300 (retiring the ART branding). While three vehicle orders have been placed, new vehicles are still in the production stage. Vehicle dimensions are similar to the Innovia ART 200 vehicle, but passenger capacity has been increased through redesigned car layout. The vehicles appear sleeker, with larger windows on the sides of the train, and redesigned windows and headlights on the ends of the cars.
Similar designs
The linear motors and steerable axles used in Innovia Metro trains are relatively rare, although similar Japanese designed linear motor propulsion technologies are also used on a number of subway lines in East Asia, such as the
Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line
The is an underground rapid transit system in Osaka, Japan, operated by Osaka Metro. It was the first linear motor rapid transit line constructed in Japan (and the first outside North America, predated only by the Intermediate Capacity Transit ...
,
Toei Ōedo Line
The is a subway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei). It commenced full operations on December 12, 2000; using the Japanese calendar this reads "12/12/12" as the year 2000 equals Heisei 12. T ...
and
Guangzhou Metro Line 5. However, the Innovia Metro system has a number of competitors in the field of automated
light metro
A medium-capacity system (MCS), also known as light rapid transit or light metro, is a rail transport system with a capacity greater than light rail, but less than typical heavy-rail rapid transit. MCS’s trains are usually 1-4 cars, or 1 ligh ...
s, including the
VAL
Val may refer to: Val-a
Film
* ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo
Military equipment
* Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies
* AS Val, a Sov ...
technology developed by
Matra
Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a French industrial conglomerate. During its years of operation, it was engaged in a wide range of business activities, primarily focused around automobiles, bicycles, aeronautics and we ...
for the
Lille Metro
The Lille Metro (french: Métro de Lille) is a driverless light metro system located in Lille, France. It was opened on 25 April 1983 and was the first to use the VAL (french: véhicule automatique léger, en, light automated vehicle) syst ...
in France (and now owned by
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
) and the ''Météor'' technology used by
Paris Métro Line 14
Paris Métro Line 14 (French: ''Ligne 14 du métro de Paris'') is one of the sixteen lines on the Paris Métro. It connects the stations Mairie de Saint-Ouen and Olympiades on a north-west south-east diagonal via the three major stations of ...
(which is built to high-capacity, full metro standards). Furthermore, the CITYFLO and SelTrac signaling technologies are not specific to the Innovia Metro, but can also equip most conventional railway lines regardless of propulsion technology or carrying capacity.
Innovia Metro lines are designed to run on
elevated structures, and indeed the systems that use these trains include such sections, with most being predominantly elevated. Using a
grade-separated guideway, though, allows them to perform equally well on ground level and in
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
s, as they in fact do for a portion of both Vancouver's Expo and Millennium Lines (using a converted
freight tunnel for the Expo line, and a bored tunnel under Clarke Road for the Evergreen Extension), Kuala Lumpur's Kelana Jaya Line, and Beijing's Airport Express. (The Scarborough RT in Toronto also includes a short tunnelled section, though there are no stations within it.) The latter two systems, along with New York's Airtrain JFK, also incorporate
platform screen doors
Platform screen doors (PSDs), also known as platform edge doors (PEDs), are used at some train, rapid transit and people mover stations to separate the platform from train tracks, as well as on some bus rapid transit, tram and light rail syste ...
commonly found in
automated people mover
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...
s around the world.
Prior to a change in approach to marketing and the introduction of the "Metro" branding, Innovia ART 100 and 200 technologies were sometimes referred to as "
light rail", especially in Asia. Because of their use of automated operation and
third-rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...
power, however, they are unsuitable for the
unprotected
''Unprotected'' is a 1916 American drama silent film directed by James Young, written by James Hatton, and starring Blanche Sweet, Theodore Roberts, Ernest Joy, Tom Forman, Walter Long and Mrs. Lewis McCord. It was released on November 6, 1916 ...
,
street-level tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s that the term usually indicates in Europe and North America.
Metros using Innovia Metro technology
Toronto
In 1981, the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
(TTC) was planning to build a
streetcar line
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
serving the city's eastern district of
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
, but the
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
provincial government convinced it, by threatening to withhold funding, to switch to the Innovia ART 100 technology.
This would act as a demonstration system for other transit operators considering buying the trains. In exchange, the government agreed to pay for any cost overruns over the original LRT costs. The six-station
Scarborough RT
Line 3 Scarborough (originally known as the Scarborough RT or SRT) is a light rapid transit line that is part of the Toronto subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line runs entirely within the suburban district of Scarborough, encompass ...
line opened in March 1985.
Although its Innovia ART 100 trains are capable of driving themselves, the TTC chose to run them semi-automatically with operators on board in order to keep peace with their main union. This conversion proved much more difficult than imagined; the small confines of the Innovia ART 100 car meant that the traditional Toronto solution of taking up the front-right corner of the cab left too little room for the operator to work in, and the entire front of the car had to be used up, reducing seating. Additionally, the Innovia ART 100 control system was based on "dumb" cars and "smart" control centres, so there was no system on the train itself for control or presenting information. These systems had to be retrofitted and were the cause of considerable expense and confusion.
Entering operation, the problems continued. The braking system had been designed to be fully automated, but was now being operated by manual control, and the brakes were being over-applied. This led to problems with the wheels being rubbed flat in spots when the brakes were applied too strongly, producing buzzing noises when running at speed. Since the vehicles were brand-new, the TTC did not have a machine capable of grinding the small-diameter wheels, and one had to be purchased for $1.5 million.
[Smith] Another $250,000 was needed for a rail grinder to remove "totally unexpected rail corrugations". Additionally, the cars were found to be incapable of turning the
short radius,
turning loop
A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains.
Bal ...
at one end of the line, in spite of UTDC's claims it could, which was going to have to be re-built at a cost of about $6 million. Instead, this portion of the track was simply abandoned.
Over a million was originally budgeted to heat the
third rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...
to prevent ice buildup, but later removed as a cost-cutting move. It was believed that the rapid operation (short
headway
Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system measured in space or time. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise defi ...
s) would keep the rail free of snow as the passing cars heated the rail. This proved not to work, and in operations at just the wrong conditions close to freezing the opposite occurred; when the train passed and heated the rail, microscopically thin layers of snow would be melted, and if the rail was below zero as a whole, the water would freeze to the rail and cause ice buildup. Another retrofit was required to solve this problem, by adding wooden covers over the rail, a system used throughout Toronto's subway system. Even with these covers in place, the line can be shut down with any heavy snowfall that covers the fourth rail to a depth that fills the distance between the rail and the linear motor.
Only two of the SRT's stations have ridership comparable to those of the TTC's conventional
subway lines, and most passengers see it merely as an extra transfer they must make in order to get onto a subway line running downtown. Its Innovia ART 100 fleet will soon be due for replacement, and it would be expensive to either resume production of the old models, or upgrade the line to handle the longer Innovia ART 200 trains.
Although there have been many proposals to extend the SRT line, none of these gained traction until recently. The line was planned to be converted to use either conventional
light rail vehicles and be extended west by , but council voted to ask for provincial and federal funding to extend the Bloor-Danforth line from Kennedy Station along a new route in Scarborough. The federal portion is still pending and could be rejected if federal funding is not acquired.
Vancouver
The
SkyTrain metro network has the largest Innovia Metro system in operation, and currently has two such lines: the
Expo Line and the
Millennium Line
The Millennium Line is the second line of the SkyTrain rapid transit system in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The line is owned and operated by BC Rapid Transit Company, a subsidiary of TransLink, and links the cities ...
. Vancouver's SkyTrain network continues to maintain on-time reliability over 95%. The Expo Line opened in late 1985, in time for Expo '86. With the opening of the Millennium Line in 2002, Vancouver added to its original Innovia ART 100 fleet the longer, articulated Innovia ART 200 trains first used in Kuala Lumpur, which allow for significantly greater rider capacities.
In 2012, Vancouver began construction of the
Evergreen Extension
The Evergreen Extension (previously known as the Evergreen Line) is a extension of the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The extension runs from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby to Lafarge Lake–Douglas in Co ...
, a extension from
Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...
to
Coquitlam
Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with a population of 148,625 in 2021, and one of the 21 municipa ...
in the northeast, which the Millennium Line now re-routes to. Although at one point the extension was proposed to be a street-level LRT system that would not have used Innovia ART technology, in 2008 plans were changed back to the SkyTrain option by the provincial government to facilitate higher ridership from increased capacity, shortened travel times and to integrate seamlessly with the existing SkyTrain network. The extension opened on December 2, 2016.
The network of Innovia ART 100, Innovia ART 200, and Innovia Metro 300 are supported by
Quester Tangent products, including braking as well as monitoring and diagnostic equipment.
[Quester Tangent – SkyTrain for Fleet Operators](_blank)
/ref>
An extension of the Millennium Line west from VCC–Clark station
VCC–Clark is an elevated station on the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is named after the nearby Vancouver Community College (VCC) located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and serves as th ...
under the Broadway corridor to a station at Arbutus Street began construction in 2020, with an expected completion in 2025. Plans may see the Expo Line being extended farther into Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, as well as a continuation of the Broadway corridor Millennium Line extension from Arbutus station farther west to the University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
, pending the outcome of local public consultations.
Detroit
The thirteen-station Detroit People Mover
The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a elevated automated people mover system in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The system operates in a one-way loop on a single track encircling downtown Detroit, using Intermediate Capacity Transit System lin ...
is a fully automated system, using the same Innovia ART 100 trains as Toronto and Vancouver. The system had originally been part of UMTA's buildout, which included lines radiating outward from a central circle into the suburbs. However, UMTA was dramatically "downfunded" in the early 1980s, and the Detroit system lost the majority of the funding. Although most other cities on the UMTA list simply gave up on their plans, Detroit decided to press ahead with the portion they could build with the funds they already had, and completed the downtown loop.
The resulting system offers service to a limited area of the downtown core along a loop. The point-to-point distances are easily walkable, so the system sees low ridership levels on the order of 7,500 passengers a day. Originally designed to act as the hub of a system with 15 million riders a year, the 2 million riders it currently serves results in a very high cost-per-passenger. According to ''The Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the '' Detroit Tribune'' on Februa ...
'', this was about $3 per ride, against a fare of only 50 cents.
Kuala Lumpur
The Kelana Jaya Line
The LRT Kelana Jaya Line is a medium-capacity light rapid transit (LRT) line and the first fully automated and driverless rail system in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. It forms a part of the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System in and around ...
in Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera''
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, su ...
, Malaysia is fully automated, and opened in 1998. It introduced the longer, articulated version of the Innovia ART 200 technology. The alignment starts from the Putra Heights interchange station, through Kelana Jaya, and ends in Gombak totaling in length with a total of 37 stations, the longest individual line on this technology.
Its first operation commenced on September 1, 1998, between the Lembah Subang Depot-Kelana Jaya to Pasar Seni and section two, between Pasar Seni to Gombak in June 1999. In 2002, the system carried its 150 millionth passenger, with an average of 160,000 passengers riding the system daily. Today, it carries over 170,000 passengers a day and over 350,000 a day during national events. A extension of the line was completed in 2016.
In 2006, an order was placed with Bombardier for 22 new four-car units, with an optional 13 to be ordered if necessary. In 2007, the 2006 order was extended with additional purchase of 52 train sets (13 trains of four cars). The first new trains entered service from December 2009. As of 2014, all 35 train sets have been delivered.
With an extension of the line opened in 2016, an additional order for 14 new four-car units was placed. These new sets are of the Innovia Metro 300 design, and like the KL Innovia ART 200, are supported by braking as well as monitoring and diagnostic equipment developed by Quester Tangent. They began entering service at the end of 2016.
New York
AirTrain JFK
AirTrain JFK is an elevated people mover system and airport rail link serving John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK Airport) in New York City. The driverless system operates 24/7 and consists of three lines and nine stations within the ...
, opened in December 2003, is an automated ART service with Innovia ART 200 rolling stock. Its two branches connect the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
and Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...
to John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Ne ...
in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. This service uses non-articulated Innovia ART 200 cars in trains of one or two cars.
Beijing
The Airport Express
The AirPort Express is a Wi-Fi base station product from Apple Inc., part of the AirPort product line. While more compact and in some ways simpler than another Apple Wi-Fi base station, the AirPort Extreme, the Express offers audio output capa ...
of the Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 25 lines including 20 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 463 stations. The rail network extends acro ...
, opened in July 2008, uses Innovia ART 200 technology, with a fleet of 40 locally manufactured vehicles. The route is long and has four stations.
Yongin
The EverLine
EverLine is a fully automated driverless people mover line in Yongin, Seoul Capital Area connecting Everland, South Korea's most popular theme park, to Bundang Line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. The system is identical to AirTrain JFK people ...
is an ART line, located in Yongin
Yongin () is a city in the Seoul Capital Area, the largest in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. With a population over 1 million, the city has developed rapidly since the 21st century, recording the highest population growth of any city in the count ...
, a major city in the Seoul Capital Area
The Seoul Capital Area (SCA), Sudogwon (, ) or Gyeonggi region (), is the metropolitan area of Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, located in north-west South Korea. Its population of 26 million (as of 2020) is ranked as the fifth largest me ...
. The line connects the city to Everland
Everland () is South Korea's largest theme park. Located at the Everland Resort in Yongin, a city in Gyeonggi-do, it receives 5.85 million visitors annually and was ranked nineteenth in the world for amusement park attendance in 2018. As of 2 ...
, South Korea's most popular theme park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
offering a transfer to the Bundang Line
The Bundang Line or Seoul Metropolitan Subway Bundang Line (Sudogwon Jeoncheol Bundangseon 수도권 전철 분당선) was a commuter rail line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway in the Seoul Capital Area operated by Korail. Also it refers physica ...
of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway
The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a metropolitan railway system consisting of 23 rapid transit, light metro, commuter rail and people mover lines located in northwest South Korea. The system serves most of the Seoul Metropolitan Area including ...
at Giheung Station
Giheung Station is a subway station of the Suin–Bundang Line and EverLine, in the city of Yongin, Gyeonggi-do
Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surr ...
.
Demo cars
Two demonstrator/prototype INNOVIA ART 100 cars were built and used for testing at the UTDC urban transit facility Millhaven, Ontario. Unlike the production cars, the demo cars lacked doors at either end of the vehicle. Test Vehicle 1 had windows in the centre and on the driver cab, while Test Vehicle 2 is a trailer car only had a centre window and no driver's cab. The paint scheme on the lead car was orange and white, while the trailer was grey and orange. The interior of the vehicle was unfinished (no seats, incomplete floor/ceiling and plywood panelling covering wiring). Only Test Vehicle 2 remained at the facility and in 2011 it was donated to the Canada Science and Technology Museum
The Canada Science and Technology Museum (abbreviated as CSTM; french: Musée des sciences et de la technologie du Canada) is a national museum of science and technology in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum has a mandate to preserve and promote ...
in Ottawa.
A mock-up of an Innovia ART 100 car was stored at the Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
St. Clair Carhouse
The St. Clair Carhouse (also known informally as the Wychwood Carhouse) was a streetcar facility in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was located south of St. Clair Avenue on a parcel of land bounded by Wychwood Avenue on the east, Benson Avenue on i ...
by Disney Displays. This car was unpainted and non-operational. The fate of this vehicle is unknown.
BC Rail
BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British ...
had an Innovia ART 200 test car delivered to test clearance in stations and tunnels for the Millennium Line
The Millennium Line is the second line of the SkyTrain rapid transit system in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The line is owned and operated by BC Rapid Transit Company, a subsidiary of TransLink, and links the cities ...
. It was donated by BC Rapid Transit Company to the West Coast Railway Heritage Park
Founded in 1961, the West Coast Railway Association (WCRA) is a non-profit society dedicated to preserving British Columbia's railway heritage. The society operates the Railway Museum of British Columbia and the CN Roundhouse & Conference Cent ...
in Squamish, BC
Squamish (; Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, ; 2016 census population 19,512) is a community and a district municipality in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located at the north end of Howe Sound on the Sea to Sky Highway. ...
in 2012.
ALRT car
The ALRT car was a proposed rapid-transit vehicle for Greater Toronto
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...
's GO ALRT
GO ALRT (Government of Ontario Advanced Light Rail Transit) was a rapid transit system proposed by GO Transit in 1982. The ALRT system would have been implemented along two new lines in the Greater Toronto Area. It would have used a new electric ...
in the early 1980s. The car was to:
* be longer
* use a pantograph
A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
* be an articulated version of the Scarborough RT car
* be capable of high speeds needed for interurban operation
As the required capacity of the ALRT system rose, it eventually approached the size of conventional heavy rail, and ALRT was cancelled in favour of additional diesel units pulling Bombardier BiLevel Coach
The Bombardier BiLevel Coach is a bilevel passenger railcar currently built by Alstom and previously by Bombardier, Hawker Siddeley Canada, the Canadian Car and Foundry (Can Car), and the UTDC. Used by North American commuter rail operators, ...
es, which have since gone on to be one of Bombardier's best-selling products.
The original ALRT design was never produced, as the ALRT program was cancelled in 1985.
Delivered rolling stock and systems
Appearances in TV and film
A scene in the 2003 movie ''Paycheck
A paycheck, also spelled paycheque, pay check or pay cheque, is traditionally a paper document (a cheque) issued by an employer to pay an employee for services rendered. In recent times, the physical paycheck has been increasingly replaced by e ...
,'' filmed in Vancouver, shows Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup.
Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...
running in front of a mockup of a Vancouver SkyTrain Innovia ART 200 train. SkyTrain cars can also be seen in the opening credits of ''21 Jump Street
''21 Jump Street'' is an American police procedural television series that aired on the Fox network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focuses on a squad of youthful-loo ...
'' and variously in ''Smallville
''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar Gough ...
'', ''The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
'' and in numerous other filmed productions shot in Vancouver.
Gallery
See also
* Medium capacity system
A medium-capacity system (MCS), also known as light rapid transit or light metro, is a rail transport system with a capacity greater than light rail, but less than typical heavy-rail rapid transit. MCS’s trains are usually 1-4 cars, or 1 ligh ...
* Other Bombardier Innovia
Innovia is a product line of fully automated and driverless transportation systems offered by Alstom. Originally Innovia only referred to the automated people mover technology acquired from Adtranz in 2001. Innovia now refers to the following autom ...
families of automated transit systems:
** Innovia APM
Innovia APM is a rubber-tired automated people mover system (APM) currently manufactured and marketed by Alstom as part of its Alstom Innovia, Innovia series of fully automated transportation systems. The technology was introduced in 1963 by West ...
– automated people mover systems
** Innovia Monorail
Innovia Monorail is a fully automated and driverless monorail system currently manufactured and marketed by Alstom as part of its Innovia series of fully automated transportation systems. Its straddle-beam design is based on the ALWEG monorail ...
– automated monorail systems
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Isaiah Litvak and Christopher Maule
"The Light-Rapid Comfortable (LRC) Train and the Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS): Two Case Studies of Innovation in the Urban Transportation Equipment Manufacturing Industry"
University of Toronto/York University Joint Program in Transportation, 1982
* Michael Smith, "TTC seeking $27 million to repair Scarborough line", ''Toronto Star'', September 24, 1986
* John Sewell
"The Shape of the Suburbs"
University of Toronto Press, 2009,
External links
Spec Sheet for the Mark I with Electric Diagrams and Tractive Curves; French
{{Automated trains and fixed-guideway transit
Electric multiple units of the United States
Bombardier Transportation multiple units
Automated guideway transit
Linear motor metros
ART people movers
Linear induction motors
Electric multiple units of Canada
Electric multiple units of China
Electric multiple units of South Korea
Rail transport in Saudi Arabia
Multiple units of Malaysia