APM history in Canada

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Abstract

In 1971, the Premier of Ontario, William Davis, stated that "cities were built for people and not cars" as he announced that the Toronto Spadina Expressway plan would be stopped and that the government would help develop new mass transit systems. During the following year, plans were announced for new transit networks (known as GO-Urban) in Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa in which intermediate capacity AGT systems were to be used. Several systems were evaluated, one was selected, and plans were put in place to build a test track in Toronto. A government crown corporation, the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC), would lead this undertaking. Although the GO-Urban project was abandoned, UTDC AGT systems were built in Scarborough (a Toronto suburb), Vancouver (the SkyTrain), and downtown Detroit (DPM) in the 1980s. In the late 1980s, the UTDC was sold to Lavalin and then in the early 1990s, the company was bought by Bombardier to be part of their transportation division. Through several acquisitions, the transportation division has since become one of the largest suppliers of rail equipment in the world. This paper traces the history and development of APMs in Canada and includes descriptions of the Scarborough Rapid Transit (RT) and Vancouver SkyTrain, as well as systems at the Toronto Zoo, the Toronto International Airport, Expo'67 (Montreal), and Expo'86 (Vancouver), and people mover studies in Niagara Falls. © 2913 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Publication Title

Automated People Movers and Transit Systems 2013: Half a Century of Automated Transit - Past, Present, and Future - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference

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