Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Advanced Rapid Transit or ART is the current name given to a rapid transit

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

system manufactured by Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....

. The original versions look like small subway cars

Rapid transit

that typically run in two-, four- or six-car trains, but the latest versions are more streamlined two-car articulated designs that are not easily uncoupled. ART systems run on conventional metal rails and pull power from a third rail

Third rail

A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...

, but are powered by a linear induction motor

Linear induction motor

A linear induction motor is an AC asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but which has been designed to directly produce motion in a straight line....

that provides traction by pulling on a "fourth rail" placed between the running rails.

The design was originally developed in the 1970s by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation

Urban Transportation Development Corporation

The Urban Transportation Development Corporation, or UTDC as it was commonly known, was an Ontario, Canada, Crown corporation created in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced light rail mass transit systems...

(UTDC), a Crown corporation owned by the government of Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, as a system that would provide economic rapid transit service in the suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

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, for ‘'Intermediate Capacity Transit System’'. Sales of the ICTS were made for metro lines in Vancouver, Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

and Detroit

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

.

Further sales were not forthcoming and the Ontario government lost interest in the company, selling it to Lavalin

Lavalin

Lavalin was a Canadian civil engineering firm located 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 to become today's SNC-Lavalin, forming one of the ten largest engineering firms in the...

of Quebec in 1986. That company ran into serious financial difficulties and the UTDC returned to Ontario control, only to be immediately sold to Bombardier. Bombardier has been much more active in developing and promoting the ART system, introducing a major new version and winning several additional sales in New York, Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

and Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

. A future system in Yongin

Yongin

Yongin is a major city in the Seoul National Capital Area, located in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. With a population of nearly 1 million, the city has developed abrutly since the 21st century, recording the highest population growth of any city in the country. Yongin is home to Everland and...

, near Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

is to use the technology as well.

The largest ART system today is part of the Vancouver SkyTrain

SkyTrain (Vancouver)

SkyTrain is a light rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SkyTrain has of track and uses fully automated trains on grade-separated tracks, running mostly on elevated guideways, which helps SkyTrain to hold consistently high on-time reliability...

network, which has seen several major expansions over its lifetime, with several more being planned. It operates just under 50 km of ART track.

Expressway plans

During the 1950s, Toronto experienced the same sort of urban sprawl

Urban sprawl

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...

that was sweeping through the United States. Suburbs grew along existing highway corridors, stretching the city east and west, and then northward along the various provincial superhighways. These highways ended at the city limits, however, and there was little route capacity within the city itself. 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.

As construction of the network started, the mood of the citizens changed. By the mid-1960s, there was a growing awareness that the growth of the suburbs led to a flight of capital from the city cores, resulting in the urban decay

Urban decay

Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude...

being seen throughout the US. Additionally, several of the chosen routes ran through densely settled neighbourhoods, including some of the more upscale areas of Toronto, like Forest Hill

Forest Hill, Toronto

Forest Hill is an affluent neighbourhood in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Along with Lawrence Park, Rosedale, and The Bridle Path, it is one of Toronto’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.-History:...

and the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

. While the opposition was growing, Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...

moved to Toronto after having successfully rallied groups to cancel the construction of the Mid-Manhattan Expressway

Mid-Manhattan Expressway

The Mid-Manhattan Expressway was a planned but never built expressway that would have crossed Midtown Manhattan in the vicinity of 30th Street, connecting the Lincoln Tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey to the Queens Midtown Tunnel between Manhattan and Long Island.- Initial proposals :Plans...

in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Applying the same formula in Toronto, Jacobs rallied local groups to oppose development of the Spadina Expressway

Spadina Expressway

The Spadina Expressway was a proposed north-south freeway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was only partially built before being cancelled in 1971 due to public opposition. It was proposed in the mid-1960s as part of a network of freeways for Metropolitan Toronto. Its cancellation prompted the...

project, while twice being arrested in the process.

On 3 June 1971, Premier Bill Davis

Bill Davis

William Grenville "Bill" Davis, was the 18th Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the MPP for Peel in the 1959 provincial election where he was a backbencher in Leslie Frost's government. Under John Robarts, he was a cabinet minister overseeing the education...

rose in the Provincial Legislature

Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...

and stated that "Cities were built for people and not cars. If we are building a transportation system to serve the automobile, the Spadina Expressway would be a good place to start. But if we are building a transportation system to serve people, the Spadina Expressway is a good place to stop." The expressway plan was dead; construction of the Spadina Expressway ended shortly after and none of the other planned expressways were ever built.

ICTS

Instead of expressways, Davis and his new Minister of Transport, William Goodfellow

William Goodfellow

William Chester Goodfellow is a founding member and Executive director of the Center for International Policy.Goodfellow earned his undergraduate degree in 1970 from Boston University and received his Masters from the Cambridge-Goddard Graduate School for Social Change in 1972. He served as an...

, outlined the "GO-Urban

GO-Urban

GO-Urban was a major mass transit project planned for the Toronto area which would have been run 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 services without the expense of...

" plan. GO-Urban called for a system of three advanced mass transit systems that would be run by the newly-formed GO Transit

GO Transit

GO Transit is an inter-regional public transit system in Southern Ontario, Canada. It primarily serves the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area conurbation, with operations extending to several communities beyond the GTHA proper in the Greater Golden Horseshoe...

. 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

Rapid transit

would be too expensive to build and operate. Designed to have a design capacity half-way between busses and subways, the new system was referred to as the "Intermediate Capacity Transit System", or ICTS. The space age

Space Age

The Space Age is a time period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age is generally considered to have begun with Sputnik...

automated guideway transit

Automated guideway transit

Automated guideway transit is a fully automated, driverless, grade-separated transit system in which vehicles are automatically guided along a "guideway". The vehicles are often rubber tired, but other systems including steel wheels, air cushion and maglev systems have also been used in experiments...

(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 AGT 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 Transurban

Krauss-Maffei's Transurban was a 12-passenger automated guideway transit 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 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

Linear induction motor

did not require physical contact for traction, which meant it would run with equal capacity in snow or icy conditions. Krauss-Maffei

Krauss-Maffei

The Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG or simply Krauss-Maffei is an injection molding machine manufacturer and defence company based in Munich, Germany...

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).

Construction of a test track on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition

Canadian National Exhibition

Canadian National Exhibition , also known as The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada during the 18 days leading up to and including Labour Day Monday. With an attendance of approximately 1.3 million visitors each season, it is Canada’s largest...

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 14 April 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 to avoid any "provinciality" during their efforts to market the design to other cities.

The result was essentially a larger, rubber-wheeled version of the original maglev vehicle. The consortium included of SPAR Aerospace

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 remote manipulator system....

for the linear induction motor

Linear induction motor

, Standard Elektrik Lorenz (SEL) for the automatic control system, Dofasco

Dofasco

Dofasco is a steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which is also home to longtime Canadian rival Stelco. Dofasco is currently a standalone subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer. Previously ordered by the U.S...

for the bogie

Bogie

A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...

s, Alcan

Alcan

Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal. It was created on November 15, 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto PLC's Canadian subsidiary, Rio Tinto Canada Holding Inc., and Canadian company Alcan Inc. On the same date, Alcan Inc. was renamed Rio Tinto Alcan Inc..Rio...

and Canadair

Canadair

Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada. It was a subsidiary of other aircraft manufacturers, then a nationalized corporation until privatized in 1986, and became the core of Bombardier Aerospace....

for the design of the car bodies and a set of prototypes, and Canadair as the overall prime contractor. The arrangements, funding and final system definitions were in place by 1976.

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 15 mm 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 that would steer each wheel 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.

A dedicated test facility was desired; modelled after the similar Transit Testing Center 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 480 acres (1.9 km²) site in Millhaven, outside of Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

, was selected for the new test centre. Kingston had been home to the Canadian Locomotive Company

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 Ontario Street and Gore Street on Kingston's waterfront....

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 29 September 1978 by James Snow

James W. Snow

James Wilfred Snow was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1985, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of William Davis and Frank Miller. Snow was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.He was born in Esquesing Township,...

, the Minister of Transportation and Communications. The site included a 1.9 km oval test track that included at-grade, elevated and ramped sections, switches, and the automatic control center. Phase III of the ICTS program ended on 31 January 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.

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

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Detroit and Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.

A test system in Toronto was the primary concern. With the GO-Urban concept having since been cancelled, and GO Transit

GO Transit

having turned to conventional heavy rail systems, the only suitable local market was the Toronto Transit Commission

Toronto Transit Commission

-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...

(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 streetcars 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 (TTC)

Kennedy is the terminal subway station of the Bloor-Danforth and Scarborough RT lines of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located at 2455 Eglinton Avenue East, just east of Kennedy Road. The station opened in 1980 in what was then the Borough of Scarborough with the Bloor-Danforth platform, and the...

when the provincial government asked them to switch to the ICTS. The TTC was uninterested until the government threatened to pull their financing, which accounted for 75% of the 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 18 m radius loop at 10 km/h 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 show for its centennial in 1986, and in 1980 they won the rights to become the worldwide Expo '86, giving it the theme "Transportation and Communication". 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 height was also ideal, as the old heavy-rail Dunsmuir Tunnel

Dunsmuir Tunnel

Dunsmuir Tunnel is a subway tunnel beneath Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Part of the Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines, the tunnel is served by two stations: 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.

Detroit had been one of six cities selected for rapid development under the UMTA program, when, after ten years, little actual development had taken place and the UMTA was mandated to install systems with all possible speed. None of the high-tech developments funded by the UMTA had been installed, nor developed to the point where they were ready for service. Instead, the Detroit system was favouring the Cabinentaxi

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...

system from Germany, but that company decided to pull out of the contest in order to focus on a larger development in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. The UTDC responded to a "buy American" clause in the UMTA by opening a branch office in Detroit, and that immediately swung the decision in their favour. However, with the Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

administration taking office in 1981, UMTA 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 opening for service on 22 March 1985, followed by the SkyTrain

SkyTrain (Vancouver)

on 11 December 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

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:...

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

Bombardier BiLevel Coach

Bombardier BiLevel coaches are bilevel passenger cars designed to carry up to 360 passengers for regional railways. These carriages are easily identifiable; they are double-decked and are shaped like elongated octagons.-History:...

, and as these other products were selling well through this period, interest in actively selling ITCS 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. 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

, 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.

Bombardier ART

A series of financial difficulties caused by Lavalin's rapid expansion lead 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 ART. Compared to the original, ART's cars are longer with more seating, and have a more open layout inside.

ART won the contest for the AirTrain JFK project, which is widely considered a great success in spite of predictions to the contrary. After winning SkyTrain in Vancouver, Bombardier further improved the design by introducing an articulating section between adjacent cars, replacing the coupling and doors of the older (retroactively named) 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 have won several new contests, and are currently operating on the Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur, the Airport Express in Beijing (in four-car trains), and is under construction on the EverLine Rapid Transit System outside of Seoul.

Vancouver continues to be the largest operator of the ICTS system, with 49.5 km of operational lines in its SkyTrain network. This network will increase in 2016 with a 10.9 km extension, the Evergreen Line. The SkyTrain system uses a mix of Mark I and Mark II cars, with plans for further expansion with Mark III cars.

Control and signalling

ICTS/ART systems are normally fully automated and driven under computer control from a centralized office. However, the TTC system in Toronto rejected this system, and the ICTS cars were modified at high cost to include operator cabins and conventional controls. No other ART service uses manual control.

Linear motor

ART is based on a linear induction motor

Linear induction motor

(LIM) using vehicle-mounted windings and a track-mounted stator consisting of a thin aluminum plate mounted flat between the tracks. The small size and flat shape of the motor, and its lack of a transmission connected to the bogies, 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 in the bogies.

Vehicle

The ICTS vehicle was built using a lightweight aluminium frame riding on two sets of articulated trucks using small steel wheels. The original Mark I cars are 12.7 m (41.7 ft) long. The second generation Mark II cars are 16.7 m (54.8 ft) long each and come in articulated pairs.
As of 2011, the Mark II design has been updated by Bombardier, with its newest offering being the Mark III. No production models are yet in service in the world, but dimensions are expected to be similar to the Mark II, with possible capacity improvements offered over the outgoing model through redesigned car layout.

Vancouver's TransLink

TransLink (Vancouver)

TransLink is the organization responsible for the regional transportation network of Metro Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, including public transport and major roads and bridges...

has released conceptual renderings of what future Mark III cars might look like in the SkyTrain network. 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

While its linear motors and steerable axles are relatively rare, the ART has a number of competitors in the field of automated metros, including the VAL (first used in Lille, France) and the Meteor technology (used by Line 14

Paris Metro Line 14

Line 14 of the Paris Métro system connects the stations Saint Lazare and Olympiades on a north-west south-east diagonal across the centre of Paris. It is the twelfth busiest of sixteen lines on the network, and as of 2011, the only one to be operated completely automatically; the second such line...

of the Paris Métro

Paris Métro

The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...

). All current ART lines are predominantly elevated, but being on a separated guideway they perform equally well underground, as they in fact do for a portion of both Vancouver's Expo and Millennium Lines and Kuala Lumpur's Kelana Jaya Line.

ART and similar technologies are sometimes referred to as "light rail

Light rail

Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...

", especially in Asia. Because of their use of automated operation and third-rail

Third rail

power, however, they are unsuitable for the unprotected street-level tram

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

ways that the term usually indicates in Europe and North America.

Vancouver

The SkyTrain network has the largest ART system in operation, and currently has two ART lines: the Expo Line and the Millennium Line

Millennium Line

The Millennium Line is the second rapid transit line built in the SkyTrain light metro rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The line is owned and operated by TransLink. Millennium Line uses the colour yellow on route maps, wayfinding and station signage.-History:When...

. SkyTrain includes the Canada Line

Canada Line

Canada Line is a rapid transit line in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. Opened in August 2009, it is the third line in TransLink's SkyTrain metro network, servicing Vancouver, Richmond, and the Vancouver International Airport...

, which is also a grade-separated, fully automated light metro system, though it uses conventional electric motors in vehicles instead of the ART design. Vancouver’s SkyTrain network continues to maintain high on-time reliability, consistently over 95%. The Expo Line opened in late 1985, in ample time for Expo '86. With the opening of the Millennium Line in 2002, Vancouver added to its original Mark I fleet the longer, articulated ART Mark II trains first used in Kuala Lumpur, which allow for significantly greater rider capacities.

Vancouver is set to begin construction of a 10.9 km ART track expansion in 2012, known as the Evergreen Line, which will extend the SkyTrain network from Burnaby to Coquitlam

Coquitlam, British Columbia

Coquitlam is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Coquitlam is mainly a suburban city, and is one of the 21 municipalities comprising Metro Vancouver. According to the 2007 Canadian Census, it is the 5th-largest city in British Columbia...

in the north-east. Although at one point the Evergreen Line was proposed to be a street-level LRT system that would not use ART technology, in 2008 plans were changed back to ART by the provincial government to facilitate higher ridership from increased capacity, shortened travel times and to integrate seamlessly with the existing SkyTrain network.

Plans may see the Expo Line being extended further into Surrey, as well as a westward extension of SkyTrain from VCC-Clark Station along the Broadway corridor to UBC, pending the outcome of local public consultations.

Toronto

In 1981, the Toronto Transit Commission

Toronto Transit Commission

was planning to build a streetcar line

Toronto streetcar system

The Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission , and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in...

serving the city’s eastern district of Scarborough

Scarborough, Ontario

Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...

, but the Ontario

Ontario

provincial government convinced it, by threatening to withhold funding, to switch to the ICTS. 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 7 km six-station Scarborough RT line opened in March 1985.

Although its ICTS Mark I 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 ICTS 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 their entire front of the car had to be used up, reducing seating. Additionally, the ICTS 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. 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 18 m turning loop 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

Third rail

to prevent ice buildup, but later removed as a cost-cutting move. It was believed that the rapid operation (short headway

Headway

Headway is a measurement of the distance/time between vehicles in a transit system. The precise definition varies depending on the application, but it is most commonly measured as the distance from the tip of one vehicle to the tip of the next one behind it, expressed as the time it will take for...

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

Toronto subway and RT

The Toronto subway and RT is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of both underground and elevated railway lines, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission . It was Canada's first completed subway system, with the first line being built under Yonge Street, which opened in...

, and most passengers see it merely as an extra transfer they must make in order to get onto a subway line running downtown. Its Mark I fleet will soon be due or replacement, and it would be expensive to either resume production of the old models, or upgrade the line to handle the longer Mark II trains.

Although there have been many proposals to extend the SRT line, none of these gained traction until recently. The line is currently planned to be converted to use conventional light rail

Light rail

vehicles and be extended west by 19km.

Detroit

The thirteen-station Detroit People Mover

Detroit People Mover

The Detroit People Mover is a automated people mover system which operates on a single set of tracks, and encircles downtown Detroit, Michigan....

is a fully automated system, using the same ICTS Mark I trains as Toronto and Vancouver. The system had originally been part of the UMTA's buildout, which included lines radiating outward from a central circle into the suburbs. However, the 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 4.7 km loop. The point-to-point distances are easily walkable, so the system sees low ridership levels on the order to 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
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 Free Press's building. The News absorbed the Detroit Tribune on February 1, 1919, the Detroit Journal on July 21, 1922, and on November 7, 1960,...

, this was about $3 per ride, against a fee of only 50 cents.

New York

AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...

, opened in December 2003, is an automated ART service with Mark II rolling stock. Its two branches connect the New York City Subway

New York City Subway

The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...

and Long Island Rail Road

Long Island Rail Road

The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...

to the John F. Kennedy International Airport

John F. Kennedy International Airport

John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...

in New York. This service uses non-articulated Mark II cars in trains of one or two cars.

Kuala Lumpur

The Kelana Jaya Line

Kelana Jaya Line

The Kelana Jaya Line is a medium-capacity rail transport system and one of the three rail transit lines in the Kuala Lumpur Rail Transit System operated by RapidKL Rail network...

in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

, Malaysia (formerly Putra-LRT) is fully automated, and opened in 1998. There are plans for extension of the line. It introduced the longer, articulated Mark II version of the ART train. The alignment starts from the Depot in Subang and ends at Terminal Putra in Gombak totaling to 29 km in length with a total of 24 stations.

Its first operation commenced on 1 September 1998 between the Lembah Subang Depot to Pasar Seni Station and section two, between Pasar Seni to Terminal Putra 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.

In 2006, an order was placed with Bombardier for 22 new 4-car units, with an optional 13 to be ordered if necessary. Delivery is expected in 2008. In 2007, the 2006 order was extended with additional purchase of 52 train sets (13 trains of 4-cars). Delivery is expected to be in 2010.

Beijing

The Airport Line

Airport Line, Beijing Subway

The Airport Express of the Beijing Subway also known as ABC is an elevated Metro line that connects the Beijing Capital International Airport with Beijing's urban center. The express line has only four stops: Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao in the city , and Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 of the Capital...

of the Beijing Subway

Beijing Subway

The Beijing Subway is a rapid transit rail network that serves the urban and suburban districts of Beijing municipality. It is owned by the city of Beijing and has two operators, the wholly state owned Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp., which operates 12 lines, and the Beijing MTR...

, opened in July 2008, uses ART technology, with a fleet of 40 locally manufactured Mk II vehicles. The route is 28 km long and has four stations.

Yongin

The EverLine Rapid Transit System

EverLine Rapid Transit System

The EverLine Rapid Transit System will be a fully automated 18.5-kilometre rapid transit system in the city of Yongin, South Korea connecting the Everland amusement park to the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. The new line will serve 15 stations...

is an ART line, currently being built in Yongin

Yongin

. The line will connect the city to the Everland

Everland

-External links:*...

theme park, with an extension of the Seoul Subway

Seoul Metropolitan Subway

The Seoul Metropolitan Subway or Metropolitan Subway in Seoul, in Seoul, South Korea, is one of the most heavily used rapid transit systems in the world, with well over 8 million trips daily on the system's thirteen lines...

now under construction. http://www.bombardier.com/index.jsp?id=1_0&lang=en&file=/en/1_0/1_2/1_2_2_1_1_4.jsp

Demo cars

Two demonstrator/prototype cars were built and used to test the ICTS technology at the UTDC facility at Millhaven, Ontario. The cars lacked doors at either end of the vehicle. The lead car had windows in the centre and driver side, while the trailer car only had a centre window. The paint scheme on the lead car was orange and white, while the trailer was grey and orange.

On the inside there were no seats and the overall interior was unfinished. Only the trailer car remained on the facility as of 2000 and the fate of this car set is unknown. A mock-up of an ICTS car was stored at the Toronto Transit Commission

Toronto Transit Commission

Wychwood Carhouse by Disney Displays.

ALRT car

The ALRT car was a proposed rapid-transit vehicle for Greater Toronto

Greater Toronto Area

The Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...

's GO ALRT

GO ALRT

GO ALRT was a light rail system proposed by GO Transit during the 1980s.The program was announced in 1982. The plan originally consisted of two lines in the Greater Toronto Area moving in an east-west direction...

in the early 1980s. The car was longer, used a pantograph

Pantograph (rail)

A pantograph for rail lines is a hinged electric-rod device that collects electric current from overhead lines for electric trains or trams. The pantograph typically connects to a one-wire line, with the track acting as the ground wire...

and was an articulated version of the Scarborough RT car. The ALRT car was 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

Bombardier BiLevel Coach

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.

Car allocation

System	Country	Km	Type
System	Country	Km	Mark I	Mark II	Mark III	Mark III on Order
Airport Express	Beijing Beijing Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's... , China China Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...	27 km		40
AirTrain JFK AirTrain JFK AirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...	New York, USA	13 km		32
Detroit People Mover Detroit People Mover The Detroit People Mover is a automated people mover system which operates on a single set of tracks, and encircles downtown Detroit, Michigan....	Detroit, Michigan Detroit, Michigan Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River... , USA	4.7 km	12
EverLine EverLine Rapid Transit System The EverLine Rapid Transit System will be a fully automated 18.5-kilometre rapid transit system in the city of Yongin, South Korea connecting the Everland amusement park to the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. The new line will serve 15 stations...	Yongin Yongin Yongin is a major city in the Seoul National Capital Area, located in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. With a population of nearly 1 million, the city has developed abrutly since the 21st century, recording the highest population growth of any city in the country. Yongin is home to Everland and... , South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...	18.5 km		32
Kelana Jaya Line Kelana Jaya Line The Kelana Jaya Line is a medium-capacity rail transport system and one of the three rail transit lines in the Kuala Lumpur Rail Transit System operated by RapidKL Rail network...	Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million... Malaysia	29 km		210
UTDC Test Facility	Millhaven, Ontario, Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	-	2
Scarborough RT	Toronto Toronto Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from... , Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... , Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	6.4 km	28
SkyTrain SkyTrain (Vancouver) SkyTrain is a light rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SkyTrain has of track and uses fully automated trains on grade-separated tracks, running mostly on elevated guideways, which helps SkyTrain to hold consistently high on-time reliability... - Evergreen, Expo, and Millenium Lines	Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,... , British Columbia British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... , Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	49.5 km	150	108		(28)**
Sub-totals			192	422
Totals:			614

28 new Mark III cars will be ordered for ART fleet expansion for the Evergreen Line, opening in 2016

Movie appearances

A scene in the 2003 movie Paycheck
Paycheck (film)
Paycheck is a 2003 film adaptation of the short story of the same name by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. The film was directed by John Woo and stars Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman and Aaron Eckhart...

shows Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck

Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...

running in front of a mockup of a Mark II train, not actually filmed in the Vancouver SkyTrain

SkyTrain (Vancouver)

system. It can also be seen numerous times in Smallville
Smallville (TV series)
Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar based on the DC Comics character Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The television series was initially broadcast by The WB Television Network , premiering on October...

, and in other shows filmed in Vancouver.

External links

Bombardier ART official site

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