SkyTrain’s Daddy – The Krauss Maffei Transurban MAGLEV
OK children, a little history lesson, ALRT’s (SkyTrain) ancestor, The Krauss Maffei Transurban MAGLEV.
For those who believe that, what we call SkyTrain, is a great Canadian invention, will be sad to hear it is not, not even close; it is a mix and match transit system, using largely discarded 1960′s and 70′s German technology.
Krauss-Maffei’s Transurban was a 12-passenger automated guideway transit (AGT) mass transit system based on a MAGLEV guideway. Development started in 1970 as one of the many AGT and PRT projects of the age. Its selection as the basis of the GO-Urban system in Toronto in 1973 made it well known in the industry; it would have been the basis of the first large-area AGT mass transit network in the world.
The suspension used attractive magnetic levitation, lifted on two upside-down T-shaped beams.
Technical problems cropped up during the construction of the test track, and the sudden removal of funding by the West German government led to the project’s cancellation in late 1974.
Given the technical problems including problems turning corners, the Ontario government decided to abandon the MAGLEV concept. Instead, they took the basic train design, linear motor, SEL (Standard Electric Lorenz) control system and other features of the Transurban, and redesigned it to run on conventional steel wheels. The result was the “ICTS” system. Announced in June 1975, the government formed the new Urban Transportation Development Corporation, in partnership with five industrial firms.
Today known as the Movia Automatic Light Metro (MALM), ICTS/ALRT/ART/Innovia is the basis for only seven such systems built in the past 40 years, of which only three are seriously used for urban transit.
Today, only six are in operation with Toronto’s SRT now abandoned.
At the time, the MAGLEV was considered the vision of the future, with rocket like trains revolutionizing how we travel.
Like most scientific dreams, the reality is somewhat different.
Our high speed trains almost reach the speeds of MAGLEV at a fraction of the cost, with the ability to also traverse non high speed trackage, such as at stations. Then there was the noise, the roar of displaced air, has never been properly rectified.
Largely MAGLEV’s are politcal statements, not unlike your SkyTrain, hugely expensive white elephants, which work, but at a great cost.