Krauss-Maffei Transurban
Encyclopedia
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 that followed in the wake of the HUD reports
of 1968. 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. 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. The Ontario government completed development and installation of a non-maglev version, today known as the Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit
.
in the US in 1968 led to a wave of developments in the mass transit world. Dozens of companies around the world started development of AGT systems from large to small, hoping to cash in on what was predicted to be an enormous wave of AGT construction. The majority of these systems were essentially smaller versions of rubber-wheeled metros, sometimes operating as a single car, but often in small trains. On the simpler end were systems like the Vought Airtrans and Bendix Dashaveyor
, while more complex systems include the Alden staRRcar
and Cabinentaxi
which were true personal rapid transit
systems (PRTs).
By the early 1970s many of these systems were developed to the point of being ready for deployment. In an effort to drum up business, the Urban Mass Transit Administration provided $1.5 million to four companies to bring their systems to the Transpo '72 show in Washington, DC where they were arranged as the central exhibit. Expecting numerous orders to follow, both the companies and Congress were dismayed to find a lack of interest on the part of city planners, for whom the systems had been designed and funded. This was generally blamed on the hesitations on the parts of the mayors to deploy a system that was not already in use elsewhere.
maglev. K-M partnered with Standard Elektrik Lorenz to provide the automated control system.
Their system was based on attractive maglev (as opposed to repulsive) because they calculated it would require half as much power. This would require much more direct control over the suspension systems, however, as Eric Laithwaite
famously noted. K-M also noted that maglev in general would have a wide array of advantages over traditional designs, including no contact with the running surface (eliminating wear), no noise or vibration and thus very little sound, low drag, and a very small vehicle because there was no "undercarriage".
SEL's control system allowed the Transurban cars to be operated singly or in five-car trains. This gave the Transurban system added flexibility; the very same system could be used on high or low-density routes, the only difference being the doors at the stations. The trains could automatically couple or uncouple in the stations, allowing the capacity to be adjusted "on the fly", or to allow individual cars to be pulled out of operation on demand, as opposed to removing the entire train from operation. Each car held 12 seated and 6 standing.
The system could also operate at different speeds, normally 30 mph but could go as high as 75 mph. This allowed the vehicles to be used on longer distance runs where the higher speeds were needed to reduce transit times. Passenger capacity was about the same at all speeds, headway
was 10 seconds at 30 mph but was increased at higher speeds. Stations could be on-line or off-line, the later allowing "through trains" to pass by intermediate stations. Unlike true personal rapid transit
(PRT) systems, individual cars could not be switched out of trains, so individual point-to-point service was not available.
A 1,200 m test track was built to test the control system, using prototype vehicles on rubber wheels. The track was completed in 1973. This was followed by a 200 m test track for the maglev system.
to install a system in the downtown core. The city was worried about the visible impact of suspended systems among the many historic buildings, so K-M suggested moving the system to an underground tunnel. Since the system was much smaller than a traditional subway, it would cost less to install and require less earth moving under the buildings. The system was fairly small, with 3.6 km of track with 10 stations. It covered the downtown core only.
system in 1972, there was enormous interest on the part of industry, who were all clamouring to win a contract and thereby be the first to be able to offer an operational system to future customers. Unlike the Heidelberg system, GO-Urban featured three major lines covering the entire Toronto area as well as neighboring cities and providing service to the distant Malton Airport. Eighteen proposals were sent in for the Phase I selection process, including all of the major US developments, several European designs, and the locally designed system from Hawker-Siddeley Canada. Most of these were rubber-wheeled systems, but there were several hovercraft
, and the maglevs from Krauss-Maffei and the ROMAG
.
The initial selection left fourteen systems under consideration, then nine for the year-long detailed inspection. All but three were left after that process. Ford's ACT
system was the least-advanced of the selectees, based on a simple 20-person rubber-wheeled vehicle. Its primary point of interest was that it used a single track for most rights of way, with smaller double-tracked areas allowing vehicles to pass each other. Hawker-Siddeley's entry also survived. It was based on smaller vehicles that switched onto separate lines at the stations, allowing other traffic to pass by at full speed. Like the Transurban, trains could be connected and disconnected on the fly.
Krauss-Maffei's system immediately caught the interest of the selection board. It had a number of advantages over the competition due to its use of a maglev and linear induction motor. The drive system had no physical contact between the train and "rails", so snow and ice would not effect its operations in the winter. Since it was expected to be almost silent in operation, the routes could be slotted into subdivisions close to houses (a major issue with most elevated railway
s).
A major part of the contract negotiations required the winning system to be built in Ontario. This was no problem for Hawker-Siddeley and Krauss-Maffei, who agreed to allow construction for any system sold to North America to be handled from Ontario. Ford could not meet this requirement, and withdrew from the contest, although there were also technical requirements the slower ACT could not meet. With only Hawker-Siddeley and Krauss-Maffei left, the 1 May 1973 announcement that the Transurban design had won the contest was unsurprising.
K-M had not yet built a full-scale Transurban test system, and agreed to help fund development of a test track in Ontario. Unlike most systems, which built their test tracks at their industrial sites, Transurban's test system was intended to be built downtown Toronto
, on the Exhibition Place
(the Ex) fairgrounds. When testing was complete, the system would be used in production for moving passengers around the site, especially during the two weeks in the summer that the Canadian National Exhibition
was in operation.
In the future, the test tracks would be connected to the Lakeshore Line of the GO-Urban network, allowing riders to transit from the downtown area directly to the fair, or to the recently completed Ontario Place
grounds, which are difficult to get to due to the 6-lane Lake Shore Boulevard separating Ontario Place from the Ex.
K-M and the Ontario government formed the Ontario Transportation Development Corporation (OTDC) to handle local sales into the North American market.
.
The loss of funding was a severe blow to the project. Although K-M offered to move the entire project to Ontario if development funding was picked up there, no further money was forthcoming for GO-Urban and development ended. During the period of negotiations, several technical issues had cropped up too. The system used a complex system of mechanical switches to move the trains from one track to another, and these proved to easily ice up in cold weather. Fixing this would require significant re-development.
Additionally, testing by US authorities found that the train was both noisy and had a harsh ride, quite the opposite of early predictions. The noise was due to the interaction of the linear motor and the plates of metal it reacted against (the "reaction rail"). The magnetic fields were so strong that they caused the plates to vibrate at 50 Hz which caused a loud humming sound that riders found distracting. The harsh ride was primarily blamed on the lack of a secondary passive suspension system, requiring the active system to continually adjust the distance over the track.
K-M offered to continue development of the system in Heidelberg, using a rubber-wheeled design in place of the maglev. These plans went nowhere.
, in partnership with five industrial firms. Today known as the Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit
(ART), the ICTS is the basis for several mass transit systems around the world.
, lifted on two upside-down T-shaped beams. Each held magnets for both lifting and switching, on the inside and outside of the T, respectively. Normally the cars ran with the T misaligned slightly inside of a similar structure on attached to the track above it, which made the system self-centering. Switching was accomplished by pulling the vehicle sideways with the second set of magnets, before moving onto the new track. Skid pads on the track stopped the vehicle in the case of a power failure.
The motor was a one-sided LIM design, with an aluminum reaction rail positioned on the track between the two suspension rails. Power pickup was provided by two slipping brushes, like those on a conventional subway system. A subway can use the running rails as the ground, but the Transrapid had no contact with its rail, so it needed a second conductor. Brushes were positioned on both sides of the vehicle, to allow it to pick up from either side. It was powered by 600 VDC power, typical for mass transit systems, and drew 50 kW at 50 mph.
s, one on each side of the LIM reaction plate. Magnets on the bottom of the vehicles relayed information about the vehicle location and speed, which was received at the central control station.
The control station received this information to provide communication-based train control based on moving blocks. The control center used the same loops to send control signals to the cars, as well as announcements in emergency situations.
The control center also featured a widespread closed circuit television system, to provide security at stations and locations along the track. This required much higher bandwidth than the inductive loop could provide, and was handled separately.
Although the Transurban system was never built in a production setting, SEL's control system became widespread. Now better known as SelTrac
, the system was licensed by Alcatel
for deployment in Canada on the ICTS. ICTS's initial installs had problems, but they were solved and the system quickly proved itself. It was then adopted by other Canadian train operators, notably CP Rail, as well as many other AGT systems. Today it is used for hundreds of AGT and heavy rail systems around the world.
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...
's Transurban was a 12-passenger 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) mass transit system based on a maglev guideway. Development started in 1970 as one of the many AGT and PRT
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...
projects that followed in the wake of the HUD reports
HUD reports
The HUD Reports were a series of studies in mass transit systems, funded by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration department of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development...
of 1968. Its selection as the basis of 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...
system in 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...
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. Technical problems cropped up during the construction of the test track, and the sudden removal of funding by the West German
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
government led to the project's cancellation in late 1974. The Ontario government completed development and installation of a non-maglev version, today known as the Bombardier 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...
.
AGT development
The publication of the HUD reportsHUD reports
The HUD Reports were a series of studies in mass transit systems, funded by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration department of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development...
in the US in 1968 led to a wave of developments in the mass transit world. Dozens of companies around the world started development of AGT systems from large to small, hoping to cash in on what was predicted to be an enormous wave of AGT construction. The majority of these systems were essentially smaller versions of rubber-wheeled metros, sometimes operating as a single car, but often in small trains. On the simpler end were systems like the Vought Airtrans and Bendix Dashaveyor
Dashaveyor
The Dashaveyor was an automated guideway transit system developed during the 1960s and '70s.Originally developed by the Dashaveyor Company for moving cargo, the system used motorized palettes that could be routed on the fly to any destination in an extended network...
, while more complex systems include the Alden staRRcar
Alden staRRcar
The Alden staRRcar, for "Self-Transport Road and Rail Car", was a design for a personal rapid transit system designed by William Alden in the 1960s...
and 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...
which were true 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...
systems (PRTs).
By the early 1970s many of these systems were developed to the point of being ready for deployment. In an effort to drum up business, the Urban Mass Transit Administration provided $1.5 million to four companies to bring their systems to the Transpo '72 show in Washington, DC where they were arranged as the central exhibit. Expecting numerous orders to follow, both the companies and Congress were dismayed to find a lack of interest on the part of city planners, for whom the systems had been designed and funded. This was generally blamed on the hesitations on the parts of the mayors to deploy a system that was not already in use elsewhere.
Transurban
Krauss-Maffei (K-M) started development of the Transurban system in 1970. Full funding for a five-year development process was granted on 1 October 1971, part of a wider funding project by the German Ministry of Research and Technology. Many companies received funding to develop AGT systems, and maglev systems in particular. K-M won funding for both their AGT system, as well as their inter-city high-speed TransrapidTransrapid
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...
maglev. K-M partnered with Standard Elektrik Lorenz to provide the automated control system.
Their system was based on attractive maglev (as opposed to repulsive) because they calculated it would require half as much power. This would require much more direct control over the suspension systems, however, as Eric Laithwaite
Eric Laithwaite
Eric Roberts Laithwaite was a British electrical engineer, known as the "Father of Maglev" for his development of the linear induction motor and maglev rail system.- Biography :...
famously noted. K-M also noted that maglev in general would have a wide array of advantages over traditional designs, including no contact with the running surface (eliminating wear), no noise or vibration and thus very little sound, low drag, and a very small vehicle because there was no "undercarriage".
SEL's control system allowed the Transurban cars to be operated singly or in five-car trains. This gave the Transurban system added flexibility; the very same system could be used on high or low-density routes, the only difference being the doors at the stations. The trains could automatically couple or uncouple in the stations, allowing the capacity to be adjusted "on the fly", or to allow individual cars to be pulled out of operation on demand, as opposed to removing the entire train from operation. Each car held 12 seated and 6 standing.
The system could also operate at different speeds, normally 30 mph but could go as high as 75 mph. This allowed the vehicles to be used on longer distance runs where the higher speeds were needed to reduce transit times. Passenger capacity was about the same at all speeds, 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...
was 10 seconds at 30 mph but was increased at higher speeds. Stations could be on-line or off-line, the later allowing "through trains" to pass by intermediate stations. Unlike true 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) systems, individual cars could not be switched out of trains, so individual point-to-point service was not available.
A 1,200 m test track was built to test the control system, using prototype vehicles on rubber wheels. The track was completed in 1973. This was followed by a 200 m test track for the maglev system.
Heidelberg
Early in development, K-M started negotiations with the city of HeidelbergHeidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
to install a system in the downtown core. The city was worried about the visible impact of suspended systems among the many historic buildings, so K-M suggested moving the system to an underground tunnel. Since the system was much smaller than a traditional subway, it would cost less to install and require less earth moving under the buildings. The system was fairly small, with 3.6 km of track with 10 stations. It covered the downtown core only.
GO-Urban
When Toronto announced its GO-UrbanGO-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...
system in 1972, there was enormous interest on the part of industry, who were all clamouring to win a contract and thereby be the first to be able to offer an operational system to future customers. Unlike the Heidelberg system, GO-Urban featured three major lines covering the entire Toronto area as well as neighboring cities and providing service to the distant Malton Airport. Eighteen proposals were sent in for the Phase I selection process, including all of the major US developments, several European designs, and the locally designed system from Hawker-Siddeley Canada. Most of these were rubber-wheeled systems, but there were several 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...
, and the maglevs from Krauss-Maffei and the ROMAG
ROMAG
ROMAG was a personal rapid transit system produced by the American company Rohr, Inc. It featured a linear induction motor that was arranged to provide both traction and suspension in a magnetic levitation system....
.
The initial selection left fourteen systems under consideration, then nine for the year-long detailed inspection. All but three were left after that process. 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...
system was the least-advanced of the selectees, based on a simple 20-person rubber-wheeled vehicle. Its primary point of interest was that it used a single track for most rights of way, with smaller double-tracked areas allowing vehicles to pass each other. Hawker-Siddeley's entry also survived. It was based on smaller vehicles that switched onto separate lines at the stations, allowing other traffic to pass by at full speed. Like the Transurban, trains could be connected and disconnected on the fly.
Krauss-Maffei's system immediately caught the interest of the selection board. It had a number of advantages over the competition due to its use of a maglev and linear induction motor. The drive system had no physical contact between the train and "rails", so snow and ice would not effect its operations in the winter. Since it was expected to be almost silent in operation, the routes could be slotted into subdivisions close to houses (a major issue with most elevated railway
Elevated railway
An elevated railway is a form of rapid transit railway with the tracks built above street level on some form of viaduct or other steel or concrete structure. The railway concerned may be constructed according to the standard gauge, narrow gauge, light rail, monorail or suspension railway system...
s).
A major part of the contract negotiations required the winning system to be built in Ontario. This was no problem for Hawker-Siddeley and Krauss-Maffei, who agreed to allow construction for any system sold to North America to be handled from Ontario. Ford could not meet this requirement, and withdrew from the contest, although there were also technical requirements the slower ACT could not meet. With only Hawker-Siddeley and Krauss-Maffei left, the 1 May 1973 announcement that the Transurban design had won the contest was unsurprising.
K-M had not yet built a full-scale Transurban test system, and agreed to help fund development of a test track in Ontario. Unlike most systems, which built their test tracks at their industrial sites, Transurban's test system was intended to be built downtown 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...
, on the Exhibition Place
Exhibition Place
Exhibition Place is a mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The 197–acre area includes expo, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments, parkland, sports facilities, and a number of civic, provincial,...
(the Ex) fairgrounds. When testing was complete, the system would be used in production for moving passengers around the site, especially during the two weeks in the summer that 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...
was in operation.
In the future, the test tracks would be connected to the Lakeshore Line of the GO-Urban network, allowing riders to transit from the downtown area directly to the fair, or to the recently completed Ontario Place
Ontario Place
Ontario Place is a multiple use entertainment and seasonal waterfront park attraction located in Toronto, Ontario, and owned by the Crown in Right of Ontario. It is administered as an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture. Located on the shore of Lake Ontario, just south of...
grounds, which are difficult to get to due to the 6-lane Lake Shore Boulevard separating Ontario Place from the Ex.
K-M and the Ontario government formed the Ontario Transportation Development Corporation (OTDC) to handle local sales into the North American market.
Cancellation
Construction on the test track started when the CNE closed for the 1974 season. Concrete pilings were poured and some of the support pillars mounted and everything was looking good for the promised opening in time for the 1975 CNE season. Then, in November 1974, the West German government announced a major shake-up of their maglev development funding. Krauss-Maffei's funding was dramatically reduced in favor of competing systems from MBBMBB
MBB may refer to:* Magandang Balita Biblia, a Tagalog translation of the Holy Bible* Make-before-break, a type of contact arrangement of an electrical switch, which ensures that when a switch transition happens, the new contact is always made before the old one is broken* Malayan Banking Berhad, a...
.
The loss of funding was a severe blow to the project. Although K-M offered to move the entire project to Ontario if development funding was picked up there, no further money was forthcoming for GO-Urban and development ended. During the period of negotiations, several technical issues had cropped up too. The system used a complex system of mechanical switches to move the trains from one track to another, and these proved to easily ice up in cold weather. Fixing this would require significant re-development.
Additionally, testing by US authorities found that the train was both noisy and had a harsh ride, quite the opposite of early predictions. The noise was due to the interaction of the linear motor and the plates of metal it reacted against (the "reaction rail"). The magnetic fields were so strong that they caused the plates to vibrate at 50 Hz which caused a loud humming sound that riders found distracting. The harsh ride was primarily blamed on the lack of a secondary passive suspension system, requiring the active system to continually adjust the distance over the track.
K-M offered to continue development of the system in Heidelberg, using a rubber-wheeled design in place of the maglev. These plans went nowhere.
ICTS
Given the technical problems remaining, the Ontario government decided to abandon the maglev concept. Instead, they took the basic train design, linear motor, SEL 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 used the existing shell of the OTDC to form the new Urban Transportation Development CorporationUrban 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...
, in partnership with five industrial firms. Today known as the Bombardier 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), the ICTS is the basis for several mass transit systems around the world.
Vehicles
Like most AGT systems, the Transurban was based on a vehicle sized about the same as a large passenger van or small bus. The vehicle was essentially a large box, with windows on the side. The lack of a conventional suspension and wheels below the vehicle was its most notable feature, making it quite short compared to similar wheeled vehicles. The Transurban vehicles held 12 passengers seated, and another 6 to 8 standing. There were two automatic doors were on either side.Suspension and propulsion
The Transurban used separate suspension and propulsion systems. The suspension used attractive magnetic levitationMagnetic levitation
Magnetic levitation, maglev, or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields...
, lifted on two upside-down T-shaped beams. Each held magnets for both lifting and switching, on the inside and outside of the T, respectively. Normally the cars ran with the T misaligned slightly inside of a similar structure on attached to the track above it, which made the system self-centering. Switching was accomplished by pulling the vehicle sideways with the second set of magnets, before moving onto the new track. Skid pads on the track stopped the vehicle in the case of a power failure.
The motor was a one-sided LIM design, with an aluminum reaction rail positioned on the track between the two suspension rails. Power pickup was provided by two slipping brushes, like those on a conventional subway system. A subway can use the running rails as the ground, but the Transrapid had no contact with its rail, so it needed a second conductor. Brushes were positioned on both sides of the vehicle, to allow it to pick up from either side. It was powered by 600 VDC power, typical for mass transit systems, and drew 50 kW at 50 mph.
Control
Almost as complex as the vehicle was the automated system to control the network in operation. For signalling, the system used dual redundant induction loopInduction loop
Induction loop is a term used to describe an electromagnetic communication- and detection system, relying on the fact that a moving magnet will induce an electrical current in a nearby conducting wire. Induction loops are used for transmission and reception of communication signals, or for...
s, one on each side of the LIM reaction plate. Magnets on the bottom of the vehicles relayed information about the vehicle location and speed, which was received at the central control station.
The control station received this information to provide communication-based train control based on moving blocks. The control center used the same loops to send control signals to the cars, as well as announcements in emergency situations.
The control center also featured a widespread closed circuit television system, to provide security at stations and locations along the track. This required much higher bandwidth than the inductive loop could provide, and was handled separately.
Although the Transurban system was never built in a production setting, SEL's control system became widespread. Now better known as SelTrac
SelTrac
SELTrac is a digital signalling technology used to control the movements of rail vehicles originally developed by Standard Elektrik Lorenz . It was originally developed for the Krauss-Maffei Transurban automated guideway transit system developed in the 1970s, and moved to the ICTS vehicle when the...
, the system was licensed by Alcatel
Alcatel
Alcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....
for deployment in Canada on the ICTS. ICTS's initial installs had problems, but they were solved and the system quickly proved itself. It was then adopted by other Canadian train operators, notably CP Rail, as well as many other AGT systems. Today it is used for hundreds of AGT and heavy rail systems around the world.
Further reading
- David Francis, "Supertrains", Anchorage Daily News, 23 April 1973, pg. 11