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

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...

mass transit systems. UTDC developed a vehicle that would provide service at rider levels between what would normally be served by a traditional subway

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...

on the upper end or busses and streetcars on the lower, filling a niche aimed at suburbs that were otherwise expensive to service. The Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) found sales with 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 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....

and 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...

.

Further sales proved more difficult than initially hoped, and there were questions about the company's ability to survive. In the early 1980s, 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:...

joined forces with UTDC in order to win a number of contracts with the TTC and 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...

. Forming a joint operating company at their Canadian Car and Foundry

Canadian Car and Foundry

Canadian Car and Foundry also variously known as "Canadian Car & Foundry," or more familiarly as "Can Car," manufactured buses, railroad rolling stock and later aircraft for the Canadian market...

(CC&F) factories in Thunder Bay, Ontario

Thunder Bay, Ontario

Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario, and the second most populous in Northern Ontario after Greater Sudbury...

, Can-Car Rail built heavy-rail passenger cars, subway cars, streetcars and other vehicles. Now armed with a complete portfolio from light to heavy rail, UTDC had a number of additional "wins" across North America, becoming a major vendor in the mass transit market. It was eventually privatized in the 1980s, when it was purchased by 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. Lavlin ran into financial difficulties in the early 1990s and sold its interest in UTDC to Bombardier

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....

in 1991.

Bombardier operates UTDC as part of their Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation

brand. Bombardier has had greater success marketing the product portfolio abroad, and the ICTS, now known as the Advanced Rapid Transit

Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit

Advanced Rapid Transit or ART is the current name given to a rapid transit system manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. The original versions look like small subway cars that typically run in two-, four- or six-car trains, but the latest versions are more streamlined two-car articulated...

(ART), has been sold to a number of new operators and is currently in operation or under expansion in seven cities around the world. Bombardier often relies on Lavalin's new owners, SNC-Lavalin

SNC-Lavalin

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is a large Canadian engineering firm. It is one of the ten largest engineering firms in the world and is based in Montreal, Quebec. It formed in 1991 from the merger of SNC and the failing Lavalin, another Quebec based engineering firm....

, to plan the construction of the rights-of-way and set up the operations centers. The UTDC factories in 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...

and Thunder Bay continue to produce rapid transit systems for use in Ontario and abroad.

Genesis

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...

grew extensively during the 1960s and 70s, and like many cities in North America, most of this growth was 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. In order to move workers to and from the business and industrial areas in the city center, an extensive series of expressways was planned, and made their way into the city's Official Plan in 1966. As work on the new hiways started, a wave of public protest followed as many houses, and in some cases entire neighborhoods, were bulldozed to make way. The work became increasingly opposed in Toronto, especially after the cause was taken up by famous urban commentator, 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...

.

In 1971 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...

won the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...

leadership contest, replacing long-serving John Robarts

John Robarts

John Parmenter Robarts, PC, CC, QC was a Canadian lawyer and statesman, and the 17th Premier of Ontario.-Early life:...

as the official party leader and Premier of Ontario

Premier of Ontario

The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...

. Shortly after taking power, on 3 June Davis announced that he was canceling provincial support for the highly controversial 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...

in Toronto

Toronto

, rising in the legislature and stating 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."

Davis felt that the future of urban transit lay not in the automobile, but mass rapid transit systems. In keeping with this, the street portion of the Spadina Expressway was canceled in 1971, but full funding remained for the subway line that shared the same right-of-way. However, subways were suitable only for high-density routes that could afford to pay for their expensive construction and operation. In 1980 this was estimated to be between $75 and $80 million a mile. The TTC suggested that all of the high-density routes suitable for subways were already being served.

The other vehicles in use with the TTC, buses and streetcars, would not be able to provide rapid transit unless they were given a separate right-of-way. This expense is easy to justify in the case of a subway with its large passenger capacity, but for a system like a bus the capital costs overwhelm the passenger numbers these systems could carry. What was needed was a new system that reduced the capital costs to be able to efficiently serve low-density routes in the suburbs, a system with flexible sizing somewhere between a small subway and large streetcar, an "intermediate" sized system.

ICTS

Work on an "Intermediate Capacity Transit System", or ICTS, had already started in 1970. Several consulting firms were asked to provide separate feasibility reports with outlines of a basic system. At the time, new urban transit systems were a field of active research across North America due to U.S. federal funding under the Urban Mass Transportation Administration's (UMTA) plans to roll out new systems in cities across the country. UMTA was convinced that urban rail systems would only be able to compete with cars if they had more car-like capabilities, and they were primarily interested in the personal rapid transit

Personal rapid transit

Personal rapid transit , also called podcar, is a public transportation mode featuring small automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guide ways...

(PRT) concept of automated car-like cabs that would pick up and drop off passengers as individual units and then link up into longer trains for travel at high speed between stations. A number of companies in the U.S. were in the process of developing systems for the UMTA, and many of these companies submitted a proposal for the ICTS project.

It was with the formation of the new Ministry of Transportation and Communications

Ministry of Transportation (Ontario)

The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario is the provincial ministry of the government of Ontario which is responsible for transport infrastructure and related law in Ontario. The ministry traces its roots back over a century to the 1890s, when the province began training Provincial Road Building...

in May 1972 that serious development of the ICTS started. On 22 November the new policy was announced. The Davis government proposed a new rail network known as "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...

" that would operate three routes in the Toronto area under the auspices of the recently created GO Transit

GO Transit

, and asked for submissions for ICTS vehicles to service the routes. Fourteen designs were initially studied, but whittled down to eight formal proposals. Some were PRT systems, while others were more traditional subway-like systems. Three of the eight ran on rubber wheels, four were air cushion vehicles (hovercraft

Hovercraft

A hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.Hovercraft are used throughout...

s) including a version of the famous French Aérotrain

Aérotrain

The Aérotrain was a Hovertrain developed in France from 1965 to 1977. The lead engineer was Jean Bertin.The goal of the Aérotrain was similar to that of the magnetic levitation train: to suspend the train above the tracks so the only resistance is that of air resistance...

, while the German firm 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...

entered their Transurban

Transurban

Transurban is an international toll road developer and manager with interests in Australia and North America. In Australia, Transurban has a stake in five out of Sydney’s nine motorways, and in Melbourne it is the full owner of CityLink, which connects three of the city’s major freeways...

system, a smaller version of their Transrapid

Transrapid

Transrapid is a German high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. Based on a patent from 1934, planning of the Transrapid system started in 1969. The test facility for the system in Emsland, Germany was completed in 1987...

magnetically levitated train.

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...

maglev system immediately won the interest of the Davis government, and in the Phase II proposals they selected it for further study, along with Ford's ACT

Ford ACT

Ford's ACT, short for Automatically Controlled Transportation or Activity Center Transit, was a people mover system developed during the 1970s. One interesting feature of the ACT is that it allowed bi-directional travel on a single rail—cars passed each other by switching onto short bypass lanes on...

and Hawker Siddeley's entry, both of which used rubber tires. Ford withdrew when the ICTS varied too greatly from the system they wanted to develop, which was aimed primarily at sites in the U.S. With only Hawker Siddeley and Krauss-Maffei remaining, the 1 May 1973 announcement that the Krauss-Maffei design had won the contest was unsurprising.

In November 1974 Krauss-Maffei announced that they were forced to withdraw from the project. The West German government had been funding development of several maglev systems based on different technologies, and decided at that time that Krauss-Maffei's system was less interesting that ones from Thyssen-Henschel

Thyssen-Henschel

Thyssen Henschel was a German industrial firm and defense contractor. Its products include the TAM medium tank for Argentina, the Mexican Henschel APC and the Marder infantry fighting vehicle....

and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm was a German aerospace company formed as the result of several mergers in the late 1960s. Among its best-known products was the MBB Bo 105 light twin helicopter...

. There were also technical problems; in testing, the complex systems needed to switch trains on the magnetic tracks froze up, and would require a re-design. With Krauss-Maffei's financial support gone, and daunting technical problems remaining to be solved, the maglev project died. A test track being constructed on the grounds of the CNE

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...

was abandoned in place, with the foundations and a few support pillars already constructed. Krauss-Maffei continued development of the original inter-city Transrapid, but at a very slow pace and through a series of mergers with other companies involved in maglev technology. The first Transrapid system did not enter service until 30 years later.Harald Maas, "Schanghai stutzt den Transrapid", Tagesspiegel, 1 February 2008

UTDC

On 14 April 1975 the Ministry of Transportation arranged financing for Phase I and II studies to develop a new system to replace the maglev. 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 what would now be an entirely local design to other cities. The consortium consisted 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

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....

, 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 an articulated 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...

system, 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...

for the design of the car bodies and a set of prototypes, 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 assembly and production.

A Transit Development Centre for UTDC was built on a 480 acres (1.9 km²) site in Millhaven, outside of Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario

. 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. It 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.

Looking for a site in Ontario to serve as a testbed for the ICTS, the government focused on an extension of the eastern end of TTC's Bloor–Danforth line. The TTC had already started building a streetcar line that would extend from the end of the subway 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...

to the Scarborough City Centre

Scarborough City Centre

Scarborough City Centre is the central business district in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Kennedy Road to the west, Markham Road to the east, Ellesmere Road to the south, and Sheppard Avenue to the North...

, a low-density route passing through industrial land. They were not interested in changing to the ICTS for this route, until the Ontario government, who provided about 80% of the capital costs, stepped in and demanded the ICTS be used. A smaller system in 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...

was also considered, and there was a brief study for a similar 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...

. 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,...

was interested in the system as part of the Expo 86

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 Friday, May 2 until Monday, October 13, 1986...

buildout in keeping with their theme, "Transportation and Communication". In spite of the UMTA program in the US being "de-funded" that year, Detroit pressed ahead with their plans and signed up in August. Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

, Ottawa

Ottawa

, Miami, 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...

and Washington, DC were also in talks with UTDC. With three customers lined up, a manufacturing plant was added to the Millhaven site, VentureTrans Manufacturing, which opened in 1982.

In 1982 UTDC also entered a design to offer rail service to the suburbs east of Toronto, a system known as 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...

. ALRT was based on the ICTS technology, but used a longer car about the size of a conventional railway passenger car, and replaced the third rail power with an overhead 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...

. Given the larger sized cars that made mechanical placements easier, conventional motors replaced the linear motor in order to reduce capital costs (the linear motor requires an aluminum "fourth rail" for the entire line). However, due to changes in the laws governing the operation of GO trains on the freight railroads they ran on, GO was able to improve their schedules without having to build any new infrastructure. ALRT was canceled in 1985 in favor of conventional heavy rail technology. UTDC would later play an important part in this buildout in spite of these changes, and, ironically, GO would eventually build their own twin-line line to Oshawa

Oshawa

Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...

to allow for expanded scheduling.

Construction of the Toronto and Vancouver systems proceeded apace, with the Scarborough RT opening for service on 22 March 1985, followed by the Vancouver SkyTrain

SkyTrain (Vancouver)

on 11 December 1985, with passenger service starting in January. The systems suffered from serious teething problems; snow froze to the 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...

which required the Scarborough RT system to be fitted with protective covers. The braking system was too powerful and caused the wheels to rub flat in spots, which led to noisy running, the opposite of the design goal. Bugs in the automatic control software led to a number of problems with doors that would not open, "phantom cars" that would appear mid-line and cause the collision avoidance systems to turn on and freeze trains in place in spite of having a driver, and a host of other problems that seriously delayed scheduled operations. In Toronto, the Scarborough RT became a subject of ridicule, often closing in heavy snows. Most of the problems with the Toronto and Vancouver systems were worked out by the time the 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....

officially opened in July 1987.

Can-Car Rail

Starting in 1972, the TTC contracted Hawker Siddeley Canada

Hawker Siddeley Canada

to design a new streetcar known as the "Municipal Surface Car". However, with the formation of the OTDC in the early 1970s, and with the TTC getting 75% of its capital funding from the provincial government, it was not entirely surprising that they demanded the TTC turn to OTDC for new vehicles, in spite of protests to the contrary.

In August 1973 the TTC placed an order for 200 new vehicles from OTDC, the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle

Canadian Light Rail Vehicle

The Canadian Light Rail Vehicle ' is a type of streetcar that is used by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Canada.-Background:...

(CLRV). The design was purchased from the Swiss company Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft

Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft

Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft , or SIG, is the former name of SIG Holding AG, a Swiss company that has been active in various businesses during its more than 150 years of operation. Since the year 2000 the Society has undergone strategic refocus, concentrating on its core compentence in...

(SIG), who were contracted to build the first 10 before turning over construction to OTDC, subcontracted at Hawker Siddeley's CC&F factory in Thunder Bay. The prototype run was cut to 6, in order to allow 4 to be converted into an articulated design, the Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV). UTDC unveiled the ALRV at a June 18–19, 1982 open house at its Transit Development Centre, which over 10,000 people attended.

In March 1983 Hawker Siddeley Canada

Hawker Siddeley Canada

sold a portion of their CC&F factory in Thunder Bay to the UTDC, creating the jointly owned Can-Car Rail. Hawker Siddeley had already developed a number of rail vehicles, and with its partnership with UTDC these became the favored products for a number of contracts in Ontario. In addition to the ICTS, UTDC now had a product portfolio that spanned everything from streetcars to subways to traditional heavy rail passenger cars and hoppers.

Continued wins

In December 1983 the TTC announced they were buying 126 subway cars from UTDC, and followed this in February 1984 with an order for 52 ALRV's. The subway cars were built at Car-Car, but after the first ten ALRV's, streetcar production moved to the Millhaven plants which were winding down their ICTS production.

A further run of a modified double-ended ALRV's followed for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States...

, and then a run of 58 subway cars for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...

in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. These were the first of many such orders, and eventually hundreds of subway cars were delivered to various U.S. transport services over the next two decades.

Since the early 1970s, Hawker Siddeley had been designing a new two-level railcar for GO Transit

GO Transit

, which they started delivering in 1976 as the BiLevel

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:...

. GO continued placing additional orders, eventually buying 470 for their service in southern Ontario, where the BiLevel is widely associated with GO.

When downsizing hit GO in the early 1990s, a number of these coaches were leased out to various operators in Canada and the US. They were received to rave reviews, and quickly generated orders from operators across North America. Several hundred additional BiLevel cars were built, and over 700 are currently in service.

UTDC's Can-Car also produced a number of other products for sales to the Canadian Forces

Canadian Forces

The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...

, including versions of the Volkswagen Iltis

Volkswagen Iltis

The Volkswagen Type 183, more commonly known as the Iltis , is a military vehicle built by Volkswagen for use by the German military and under licence by Bombardier for the Canadian Forces and Belgian Army...

, the medium-sized M35 2-1/2 ton cargo truck

M35 2-1/2 ton cargo truck

The M35 family of trucks is a long-lived vehicle initially deployed by the United States Army, and subsequently utilized by many nations around the world. A truck in the 2½ ton weight class, it was one of many vehicles in U.S...

and the larger Steyr Percheron.

Sale to Lavalin

In spite of these successes, 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.

In 1986 the new Ontario government announced their intention to sell UTDC to Lavalin

Lavalin

, a large engineering company in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

. 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 CC&F to Lavalin as well.

This was during a period of rapid conglomeration

Conglomerate (company)

A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...

by Lavalin, which included purchases of the Bellechasse Hospital in Montreal, MétéoMédia

MétéoMédia

MétéoMédia is a 24-hour Canadian French language Category A specialty channel and web site, which provides weather information 24 hours a day. It primarily serves viewers in Quebec, although some cable TV systems in Ontario and New Brunswick carry the channel as well. It is available nation-wide...

's television services, and many other businesses that were unrelated to its core engineering strengths. By the early 1990s this aggressive expansion plan led to a massive debt load and serious financial difficulties. In 1991, Lavalin's bankers put it under pressure to be acquired by its chief rival, SNC

SNC-Lavalin

. Lavalin announced its intent to sell off its stake in UTDC, and several companies expressed an interest, including Asea Brown Boveri

Asea Brown Boveri

ABB is a Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, and best known for its robotics. ABB operates mainly in the power and automation technology areas. It ranked 143rd in Forbes Ranking ....

and Westinghouse

Westinghouse Electric (1886)

Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...

. Before this was completed, the company went bankrupt.

Sale to Bombardier Transportation

As part of the proceedings, UTDC was returned to the Ontario government, who quickly sold it to Bombardier

Bombardier Transportation

in 1991. SNC purchased the engineering portions of the company and became SNC-Lavalin

SNC-Lavalin

, while most other business were sold off to other firms.

Bombardier quickly re-branded the UTDC products under their growing Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation

marque. Bombardier Transportation is the company's railroad equipment division, started in 1970 with their purchase Rotax

Rotax

BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co KG , commonly known simply as Rotax, is an Austrian engine manufacturer. It develops and produces four-stroke and advanced two-stroke engines for Bombardier Recreational Products products as well as for motorcycles, karts,...

, who made engines used in their snowmobile

Snowmobile

A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...

s as well as making 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...

s. Now in the train business, in 1975 they added the Montreal Locomotive Works

Montreal Locomotive Works

Montreal Locomotive Works was a Canadian railway locomotive manufacturer which existed under several names from 1883–1985, producing both steam and diesel locomotives. For a number of years it was a subsidiary of the American Locomotive Company...

and their LRC

LRC (train)

LRC is a bilingual acronym for Light, Rapid, Comfortable or Léger, Rapide, et Confortable, the name of a series of lightweight diesel-powered passenger trains that were used on short- to medium-distance inter-city service in the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec...

high-speed train design. Although the LRC was never the success Bombardier hoped, the company continued to buy other rail companies in North America and Europe, dramatically expanding division until it became the largest supplier of rail equipment in the world with its purchase of ADtranz

Adtranz

ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation , commonly known under its brand Adtranz, was a multi-national rail transport equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the USA....

in 2001.

Bombardier was much more aggressive in marketing the UTDC product line than either the Crown or Lavalin had been, especially the ITCS. Bombardier re-designed the cars, expanding the passenger capacity and updating their look, re-introducing the product as the Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit

Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit

(ART). ART won the contest for the 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...

project, which is widely considered a great success in spite of predicitions to the contrary.

After winning SkyTrain, 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 Mk.II design have won several new contests, and are currently operating on 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

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...

, the Airport Express in 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...

(in four-car trains), and is under construction on 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...

outside of 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...

.

Vancouver continues to be the largest operator of the ICTS system, with 49.5 km of operational lines. The SkyTrain system uses a mix of MK I and MK II trains.

Bombardier also continues to win sales with its other light rail vehicles, including a major expansion of the TTC's network using a derivative of the Flexity

Flexity

Flexity is the name given by Bombardier Transportation to most of the trams they manufacture. For specific information, see the following articles:...

platform, which will be built at the CC&F plants.

Mass Transit

H5 subway cars
H-series (Toronto Subway car)
The H-series rapid transit cars are a subway car model built from 1965 to 1990 for the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1965 to 1975, the cars were built by Hawker Siddeley Canada and later by its new owner the Urban Transportation Development Corporation...

(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:...

)
H6 subway cars
H-series (Toronto Subway car)
The H-series rapid transit cars are a subway car model built from 1965 to 1990 for the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1965 to 1975, the cars were built by Hawker Siddeley Canada and later by its new owner the Urban Transportation Development Corporation...

(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:...

), also used by Ankara Metro
#3 (01700 series) subway cars (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...

) for the Red Line
Red Line (MBTA)
The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the MBTA running roughly north-south through Boston, Massachusetts into neighboring communities. The line begins west of Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Alewife station, near the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Route 2...

Light Rail

ICTS; 2 car working model (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:...

, TransLink (British Columbia), 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....

)
CLRV
Canadian Light Rail Vehicle
The Canadian Light Rail Vehicle ' is a type of streetcar that is used by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Canada.-Background:...

L2 (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:...

)
ALRV L3 (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:...

)
Santa Clara VTA Light-rail
Santa Clara VTA Light-rail
VTA Light Rail is a light rail system serving San Jose, California and its suburbs in Silicon Valley. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, and consists of of standard-gauge track on two main lines and a spur line...

Cars (Santa Clara VTA, now in secondhand use in Sacramento
Sacramento Regional Transit District
The Sacramento Regional Transit District, commonly referred to as RT, is the agency responsible for public transportation in the Sacramento, California area. It was established on April 1, 1973, as a result of the acquisition of the Sacramento Transit Authority...

and Salt Lake City
Utah Transit Authority
The Utah Transit Authority operates a public transportation system throughout the Wasatch Front of Utah, United States. It operates fixed route buses, express buses, ski buses, three light rail lines , and a commuter rail line from Salt Lake City to Pleasant View, north of Ogden. UTA is based in...

) - Double ended articulated variant of the ALRV L3 cars

Heavy Rail

Bi-Level III and IV coaches
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:...

- originally developed by 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:...

- 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...

, Altamont Commuter Express
Altamont Commuter Express
The Altamont Commuter Express is a regional rail service in California connecting Stockton with San Jose....

and various other North American
North American
North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...

operators
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...

, a lengthened and articulated version of the ITCS.

Other

UTDC 24M32 - HLVW military trucks based on the Steyr Percheron
MLVW military trucks based on the M35 2-1/2 ton cargo truck
M35 2-1/2 ton cargo truck
The M35 family of trucks is a long-lived vehicle initially deployed by the United States Army, and subsequently utilized by many nations around the world. A truck in the 2½ ton weight class, it was one of many vehicles in U.S...
Volkswagen Iltis
Volkswagen Iltis
The Volkswagen Type 183, more commonly known as the Iltis , is a military vehicle built by Volkswagen for use by the German military and under licence by Bombardier for the Canadian Forces and Belgian Army...

scout car
Multi-Purpose Small Bus, a handicap transit vehicle developed with Rek-Vee Industries in Scarborough and FunCraft Vehicles in Cambridge

Major Clients

Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
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:...
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...
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States...
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
Vancouver SkyTrain
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....

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:...
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....
Canadian Car and Foundry
Canadian Car and Foundry
Canadian Car and Foundry also variously known as "Canadian Car & Foundry," or more familiarly as "Can Car," manufactured buses, railroad rolling stock and later aircraft for the Canadian market...
Montreal Locomotive Works
Montreal Locomotive Works
Montreal Locomotive Works was a Canadian railway locomotive manufacturer which existed under several names from 1883–1985, producing both steam and diesel locomotives. For a number of years it was a subsidiary of the American Locomotive Company...

External links

James Bow, "The Scarborough Rapid Transit Line", Transit Toronto

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Genesis

ICTS

UTDC

Can-Car Rail

Continued wins

Sale to Lavalin

Sale to Bombardier Transportation

Mass Transit

Light Rail

Heavy Rail

Other

Major Clients

See also

Further reading

External links