Technology
Canada Line uses a fleet of trains built by Rotem, a division of Hyundai Motor Group. They are powered by conventional electric motors, rather than the linear induction motors used by the Expo and Millennium Line's Bombardier ART trains. Canada Line trains are operated by the same SelTrac automated train control system also used in the rest of the SkyTrain network.
The selection of Rotem was largely a consequence of the Request for Proposals process for the Public-Private Partnership, whose terms did not allow Bombardier to consider efficiencies in combining operations or rolling-stock orders for the new line with those for the existing system. This placed all bidders on a level playing field, albeit at the cost of not necessarily picking the most efficient choice for long-term operation. The RFP also required that the system have an ultimate capacity of 15,000 passengers per hour per direction (leaving the choice of technology and platform length to the proponent) and required a maximum travel time between YVR and downtown Vancouver of 24 minutes.
The fleet consists of 20 fully automated 2-car articulated trains, for a total of 40 cars. The capacity of the trains is estimated at 334 people per car (comfortably), or 400 people at crush load. The trains have a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph) in normal operation, or 90 km/h in catch-up mode. Each married pair of gangway-connected cars is 41 metres long and 3 metres wide, similar in dimensions to Ottawa's O-Train, and are longer and wider than the Bombardier ART fleet used on the Expo and Millennium lines. Each train has exterior LED electronic displays, on the exterior to indicate terminus station, and on the interior to display the next station and the terminus station; a useful feature, considering the line has two branches.
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