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Where most trains have a driver’s cab, ART Mark II trains give passengers a large picture window through which they can see where the train is going. This train above is on the Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Advanced Rapid Transit or ART is the current name given to a metro system manufactured by Bombardier Transportation; it was originally named ICTS (for ‘Intermediate Capacity Transit System’), and is sometimes referred to generically as ‘advanced light rapid transit’. It is used by metro lines in Vancouver, Toronto, Detroit, New York, and Kuala Lumpur. A future system in Yongin, near Seoul, South Korea is to use the technology as well. It was proposed for Bangkok, Thailand’s Skytrain, but dropped in favour of standard light-rail technology.

ART trains pull themselves along using an aluminium induction strip visible between the rails.

The technology was developed in the 1970s by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation, a Crown corporation of the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was among the first to make use of linear electromagnetic propulsion. ART is not, however, a magnetic levitation system; the train’s weight is supported by the wheels even while in motion. The train is propelled by magnetic forces acting against currents induced in a conductive strip located between the rails, essentially pulling itself along without requiring a motor with moving parts.

ART trains are also capable of running under computer control, without drivers, and have steerable axles, allowing them to turn tighter corners than most trains of the same length. They are also lighter than most conventional metro trains, and can run on smaller elevated guide-ways and in narrower tunnels.

While its linear motors and steerable axles are relatively rare, the ART has a number of competitors in the field of automated metros, including the VAL and the Meteor technology used by Line 14 of the Paris Métro. All current ART lines are predominantly elevated, but there is nothing in their design to prevent them from performing equally well underground.

ART and similar technologies are sometimes referred to as “light rail’, especially in Asia. Because of their use of automated operation and third-rail power, however, they are unsuitable for the unprotected street-level tramways that the term usually indicates in Europe and North America.

A Mark II SkyTrain at Rupert station, Vancouver Millennium Line

Vancouver uses both the original ICTS model and the ART Mark II (pictured here), whose articulated design allows for a more spacious interior.

Toronto’s Mark I trains have a more conventional appearance than newer models.

The SkyTrain is the largest ART system in operation, and consists of two lines; the Millennium Line and the Expo Line. The Expo Line opened in late 1985. Vancouver’s SkyTrains have operated from the start in fully automated mode. With the opening of the Millennium Line in 2002, Vancouver added to its original Mark I fleet the longer, articulated ART Mark II trains first used in Kuala Lumpur, which allow for significantly greater capacities.

Vancouver is currently preparing two further lines, including the Canada Line under construction, a metro line which will run in subway tunnels through downtown and central Vancouver and then rise above ground to two elevated branches to the suburb of Richmond and Vancouver International Airport, and a street-level light rail line connecting the Millennium Line to Coquitlam in the north-east known as the Evergreen Line. Neither of these lines, however, will use ART trains. Rotem, a division of the Hyundai Motor Group, will be supplying automated metro trains for the Canada Line. Bombardier will likely be one of the competitors to supply trams for Coquitlam, but ART technology requires grade-separation throughout the route and so cannot be used for such a street-level system.

In 1981, the Toronto Transit Commission was planning to build a streetcar line serving the city’s eastern district of Scarborough, but the Ontario provincial government convinced it, by agreeing to pay for the line, to use the then-new ICTS technology instead so that it could act as a demonstration system for other transit operators considering buying the trains. The six-station Scarborough RT line opened in 1985. Although its ICTS Mark I trains are capable of driving themselves, the TTC chose to run them semi-automatically with operators on board in order to keep peace with their main union.

The future of the line is uncertain; it has proven expensive to run, and has never been extended. Only two of its stations are used on a level comparable to those of the TTC’s conventional subway lines, and most passengers see it merely as an extra transfer they must make in order to get onto a higher-volume line running downtown. Its Mark I fleet will soon be due for replacement, and it would be expensive to either resume production of the old models, or upgrade the line to handle the longer Mark II trains. [1]

The thirteen-station Detroit People Mover is a fully automated system, using the same ICTS Mark I trains as Toronto and Vancouver.

AirTrain JFK, opened in December 2003, is an automated ART service with Mark II rolling stock. Its two branches connect the New York City Subway and Long Island Rail Road to the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (locally referred to as "PUTRA") is fully automated, and opened in 1998. There are plans for extension of the line. It introduced the longer, articulated Mark II version of the ART train.

The alignment starts from the Depot in Subang and ends at Terminal Putra in Gombak totaling to 29 km in length with a total of 24 stations.

Its first operation commenced on 1st September 1998 between the Lembah Subang Depot to Pasar Seni Station and section two, between Pasar Seni to Terminal Putra in June 1999.

In 2002, the system carried its 150 millionth passenger, with an average of 160,000 passengers riding the system daily. Today, it carries over 170,000 passengers a day and over 350,000 a day during national events.

In 2006, an order was placed with Bombardier for 22 new 4-car units, with an optional 13 to be ordered if necessary. Delivery is expected in 2008

In 2007, the 2006 order was extended with additional purchase of 52 train sets. Delivery is expected to be in 2010.

The EverLine Rapid Transit System is an ART line is being built in Yongin, connecting the city and the Everland Theme Park with an extension of the Seoul Subway now under construction. [2]

The ALRT car was a proposed rapid-transit vehicle for Greater Toronto's GO ALRT in the early 1980s. The car was a longer and articulated version of the Scarborough RT car, capable of high speeds needed for interurban operation. The design was never produced, as the ALRT program was cancelled in 1985.

• Vancouver - 210 cars (150 Mark I and 60 Mark II)
• Detroit - 12 cars (Mark I)
• Kuala Lumpur 35 cars (Mark II); 52 more cars on order
• AirTrain JFK 32 cars (Mark II)
• Yongin LRT - 32 cars (Mark II)
• Scarborough RT - 28 cars (Mark I)
• Bombardier - 1 car (demo - Mark I)

A scene in the 2003 movie Paycheck shows Ben Affleck running in front of a Mark II train in the Vancouver SkyTrain system. It can also be seen numerous times in Smallville, and in other shows filmed in Vancouver.

• Medium capacity system

• Bombardier ART official site