Innovia Metro
Innovia Metro is an automated rapid transit system manufactured by Alstom. Innovia Metro systems run on conventional metal rails and pull power from a third rail but are powered by a linear induction motor that provides traction by using magnetic force to pull on a "fourth rail" placed between the running rails. However, newer versions of the technology are available with standard electric rotary propulsion.
The design was originally developed in the 1970s by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation, a Government of Ontario–owned crown corporation. It was designed as a system that would provide economic rapid transit service in the suburbs, 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. The ICTS was chosen for lines in Vancouver, Toronto, and Detroit. Further sales were not forthcoming and the Ontario government lost interest in the company, selling it to Lavalin of Quebec in 1986. Lavalin ran into serious financial difficulties and the UTDC returned to Ontario control, only to be immediately sold to Bombardier Transportation.
Bombardier used the name Advanced Rapid Transit after its acquisition of the technology. The company was much more active in developing and promoting this system, introducing a major new revision and winning several additional sales in New York City, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur and Yongin, near Seoul.
Bombardier would later be purchased by Alstom, which continues to market the technology. The latest version is marketed as the Innovia Metro, while previous models are retroactively branded as Innovia ART. The largest system is part of the Vancouver SkyTrain metro network, which has seen several major expansions over its lifetime. It operates just under of track compatible with Innovia Metro trains. Vancouver was the first to order Innovia Metro 300 vehicles. Since then, vehicle orders for the latest Innovia Metro technology have been made by transit authorities in Kuala Lumpur and Riyadh.
History
Development stage
During the 1950s, Toronto experienced the same sort of urban sprawl that was sweeping through the United States. This caused enormous traffic problems within the city, and a network of new highways to address the problem became part of the Official Plan in 1959. 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 being seen throughout the US leading to freeway revolts across North America. Activists inspired by urbanist Jane Jacobs rallied to oppose development of the Spadina Expressway project. The government reconsidered and cancelled the construction of the Spadina Expressway and other planned expressways.Instead of expressways, Bill Davis and his new Minister of Transport, Charles MacNaughton, outlined the "GO-Urban" plan. GO-Urban called for a system of three advanced mass transit lines that would be run by the newly formed GO Transit. The idea was to select a system with low capital costs, one that would be cost effective in low-density areas where a traditional subway would be too expensive to build and operate. Designed to have a design capacity half-way between buses and subways, the new system was referred to as the Intermediate Capacity Transit System or ICTS. The space age automated guideway transit systems being designed in the late 1960s seemed like the right solution.
Toronto was not the only city looking for such a solution, and there appeared to be a large market for automated transit systems in the 1970s and 80s. As GO-Urban was larger than most networks being considered, practically every company working on an AGT, or hoping to, submitted a proposal. The first cut reduced the field to a still-large fourteen proposals. After a year-long selection process, GO selected the Krauss-Maffei Transurban 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 did not require physical contact for traction, which meant it would run with equal capacity in snow or icy conditions. Krauss-Maffei 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".
Construction of a test track on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition started in late 1975, but shortly after this Krauss-Maffei announced that development funding provided by the German government was ending. Ontario was not willing to continue funding development of the system on their own, and cancelled the maglev plans.
Rebirth
Instead of returning to their earlier submissions, the OTDC decided to press ahead with many portions of the existing ICTS design. On April 14, 1975, the Ministry of Transportation arranged financing for Phase I and II studies to develop the new version. In June 1975, OTDC announced that it had arranged a consortium to continue the development of the ICTS, changing their name to "Urban Transportation Development Corporation" 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 for the linear induction motor, Standard Elektrik Lorenz for the automatic control system, Dofasco for the bogies, Alcan and Canadair 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 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 set 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 site in Millhaven, outside of Kingston, Ontario, was selected for the new test centre. Kingston had been home to the Canadian Locomotive Company that closed its doors in 1969, and the city lobbied hard for the new company to locate to their city.
The site was officially opened on September 29, 1978, by James Snow, the Minister of Transportation and Communications. The site included a oval test track that included at-grade, elevated and ramped sections, switches, and the automatic control centre. Phase III of the ICTS program ended on January 31, 1980, when testing on the prototype was completed at the Millhaven site, by this point the government had invested about $57.2 million, of a total $63 million spent on the product by the government and its industrial partners.
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, Hamilton, Vancouver, Detroit and Los Angeles.A test system in Toronto was the primary concern. With the GO-Urban concept having since been cancelled, and GO Transit having turned to conventional heavy rail systems, the only suitable local market was the Toronto Transit Commission. 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.
The provincial government asked the TTC to switch the streetcar line to the ICTS. The TTC was uninterested until the government threatened to pull their financing, which accounted for 75% of its capital budget. In exchange, the government agreed to pay for any cost overruns above the original streetcar budget. Construction of the internal streetcar platform and a turn-around loop had already been completed at the station. The platform had to be raised to the higher floor height of the ICTS, but UTDC claimed the vehicle would be able to make its way around the existing radius loop at without additional modification.
Vancouver proved very interested in the system on its own merits. As early as 1978, the city had been planning a transportation-themed event for its centennial in 1986, and in 1980 they won the rights to host the Expo '86 World's Fair, giving it the theme "Transportation and Communications". The city is newer than Toronto and more spread out, making a traditional subway unattractive – precisely the problem that the ICTS had been designed to solve. The ICTS vehicle design, with shorter vehicle heights, was also ideal, as the old heavy-rail Dunsmuir Tunnel 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 United States Urban Mass Transportation Administration Downtown People Mover program. After ten years, little actual development had taken place and UMTA was mandated to install systems with all possible speed. None of the high-tech developments funded by UMTA had been installed, nor developed to the point where they were ready for service. Instead, the Detroit system was favouring the Cabinentaxi system from Germany, but that company decided to pull out of the contest in order to focus on a larger development in Hamburg. The UTDC responded to a "buy American" clause in UMTA by opening a branch office in Detroit, and that immediately swung the decision in their favour. However, with the Ronald Reagan administration taking office in 1981, DPM was rapidly de-funded. Four of the five cities ended their development plans, but Detroit and Miami decided to press ahead with their deployments.
Construction of the Toronto and Vancouver systems proceeded apace, with the Scarborough RT opening for service on March 22, 1985, followed by the SkyTrain on December 11, 1985, with passenger service starting in January.