Bombardier Innovia Monorail

Innovia Monorail (stylized as INNOVIA Monorail) is the name given to fully automated and driverless monorail system manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. Its straddle-beam design is based on the ALWEG monorail, which was first developed in the 1950s and later popularized by Disney at their theme parks.

Innovia Monorail 300 in São Paulo, Brazil.

History
Jacksonville Skyway
Las Vegas Monorail
Walt Disney World Monorail

In 1989, Walt Disney World got a new fleet of Mark VI monorail trains built by Bombardier Transportation.[1] Bombardier later supplied its first turnkey monorail system in 1991 to Tampa International Airport in Florida;[2] followed by a contract for JTA Skyway Monorail system in Jacksonville, Florida in 1994.[3] Shortly after, in 1996, Newark Liberty International Airport opened a Von Roll monorail system to connect all its terminals. Von Roll technology was sold to Adtranz and later acquired by Bombardier.[4] These early systems are now grouped under the name Innovia Monorail 100.

In July 2004, Las Vegas opened its 6-mile long Mark IV Las Vegas Monorail monorail system (technology now known Innovia Monorail 200 system).[5] The system suffered from repeated technical difficulties, including parts falling from a moving vehicle, in the first few months of service. The system was temporarily closed for 4 months and reopened in December 2004. Since then, the monorail carries 30,000 passengers daily, despite this it is still not meeting the original ridership estimates.[6]

In 2010, the cities of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and São Paulo, Brazil placed orders from Bombardier for its latest Innovia Monorail 300 system. As of 2015, both systems are still in delivery. The Riyadh system is for the new King Abdullah Financial District, which will be a car-free economic hub in the Middle East.[7] The São Paulo system will be part of the city's mass transit network and serve 17 stations between the residential districts of Vila Prudente and Cidade Tiradentes.[8] The line started its operations in August 2014 and currently includes ten stations.[9][10]

In November 2014, Bombardier signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with CSR Puzhen in China to develop and manufacture Innovia Monorail vehicles (as well as Innovia APM vehicles) for the Chinese market.[11]

In August 2019, a consortium including Bombardier signed an agreement with the National Authority for Tunnels in Cairo, Egypt which included the development and build of 70 4-car monorail trains for $2.85 billion for two new lines, between East Cairo and the New Administrative Capital, and between Giza and 6th October City. [12]

Technical Characteristics

Innovia Monorails systems have several defining features:

  • Low profile vehicles/low floor height above beam[13]
  • Distinct sloped nose/end-cap
  • Inter-car walkthrough (characteristic of 300 series only)[13]
  • Rubber-tires and permanent magnet motor[13]
  • Aluminium carbody, steel underframe, composite end cap
  • "Warp lights" in the vehicle shirt

Driverless Operation

Innovia Monorails are all fully automated and use a variety of train control technologies. However, the Riyadh and São Paulo monorails are both equipped with CITYFLO 650 communications-based train control.[14] Driverless operation offers many advantages including improved safety, high reliability, shorter headways between trains and lower maintenance costs.

Emergency walkway on Las Vegas Monorail system

Guidebeams

These monorails operate on a narrow, elevated guidebeam. Pre-cast, post-tensioned guidebeams are constructed at an off-site location and later installed on the system. The guidebeams are 690 mm (27 in) wide.[13] The Innovia Monorail 300 was designed to navigate curves as tight as 46 m and a maximum grade of 6%. Monorail switches are either beam replacement or multi-position pivot switches.[15]

Safety

Innovia Monorail systems have evacuation walkways down the entire length of the guidebeam. These walkways allow passengers to escape any onboard hazard. The maintenance crew also uses these walkways for repairs and general maintenance to the system.[16]

Production

The three generations of Innovia Monorails have been assembled in different plants. Today, there are multiple production facilities which have produced the trains including Kingston, Canada;[17] Wuhu, China; Hortolândia, Brazil[18] and Derby, United Kingdom.[19]

System Implementations

Innovia Monorail 100 systems:

Innovia Monorail 200 systems:

Innovia Monorail 300 systems:

Under construction

Innovia Monorail 300 systems:

Awards

The Chicago Athenaeum organizes the Good Design Award competition every year. In 2014, the Innovia Monorail 300 was a winner of the Good Design Award in the Transportation 2014 category.[22]

Accidents and incidents

The only city in the world to have an Innovia 300 monorail in operation, São Paulo has had its system break-down on multiple occasions, due to problems in implementation and on the train project itself, ever since it started operating commercially. In 2016, a train departed from the Oratório (São Paulo Metro) station with its doors open, which luckily caused no accidents, due to an error in the programming made by Bombardier on the train's computers.[23] It's worth noting that those trains operate on unprotected 15-meter (45-feet) high tracks. In January 2019, two trains collided on the to-be-opened Jardim Planalto (São Paulo Metro) station,[24] causing both to become unusable for the remainder of the year. According to the metro workers' union, this accident was caused because there's a gap in the system: if one train is shut down, it disappears from the control system and is not seen by others, which could (and supposedly did) cause crashes.[25][26] In January 2020, due to poor constructing, screws fell from one of the line's track-switches, causing the line to operate precariously for five days.[27] The section in which this took place (in the vicinity of the São Lucas (São Paulo Metro) station) had been opened only two years prior. In February 2020, the worst accident so far happened: a tire from the train M20 exploded, causing the system to completely shut down while Bombardier technicians looked into what happened, partially reopening ninety-four days later (on June 1st)[28] and fully reopening 111 days after the incident, on June 18th.[29] According to a preliminary report by the São Paulo State's Research Institute, what caused the incident were hundreds[30] of imperfections on the concrete rails, which caused strong vibrations that, in turn, made the tire's runflat mechanism touch the rubber from inside the wheel, causing premature wear and consequent rupture.[31] After investigating, it was found out that all 23 operational trains from the line's fleet had been affected by this issue.[32]

See also

References
  1. "Walt Disney World Monorail System". Big Florida Country. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  2. "Monorails of North America". The Monorail Society. Monorail Society. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  3. "Jacksonville's Automated Skyway Express Downtown Peoplemover". Innovative Transportation Technologies. Jerry Schneider. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  4. "Von Roll/Adtranz". The Monorail Society. The Monorail Society. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  5. "OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE". Las Vegas Monorail. Las Vegas Monorail Company. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  6. "Monorail! Could Disney dream be Toronto's reality?". thestar.com. The Toronto Star. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  7. "King Abdullah Financial District monorail revealed". Railway Gazette. Railway Gazette.
  8. "São Paulo awards monorail metro contract". Railway Gazette. Railway Gazette.
  9. "São Paulo awards monorail metro contract". Railway Gazette. Railway Gazette.
  10. "Estação Vila Prudente – Linha 15-Prata | Metrô São Paulo". www.metro.sp.gov.br (in Portuguese). Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  11. "Bombardier Announces Joint Venture for China". Net News Ledger. Net News Ledger.
  12. "Consortium of Bombardier Transportation, Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors wins contract to supply and operate two monorail lines in Egypt". globenewswire.com. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  13. "ALWEG - Bombardier Innovia Monorail 300". The Monorail Society - Technical Page. The Monorail Society. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015.
  14. "Bombardier named systems supplier of the year - INNOVIA Monorail 300 system and CITYFLO 650 technology are winners in Sao Paulo". Purchasing B2B. Purchasing B2B. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  15. "INNOVIA Monorail 300 System: a mass transport solution for the megacity of São Paulo" (PDF). CG/LA Infrastructure, Inc. CG/LA Infrastructure, Inc.
  16. "URBAN MONORAIL TRACK". Monorail Australia. The Monorail Society.
  17. "King Abdullah Financial District monorail revealed". veeoz. Railway Gazette. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  18. "Bombardier opens Hortolândia monorail factory". Railway Gazette. Railway Gazette.
  19. "Bombardier in Derby to build monorail trains for Cairo". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  20. 今报记者. "激动！坐这车游柳州，原来更有feel！想体验吗？". Weixin Official Accounts Platform. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  21. "Cairo Monorail System in Egypt". Railway Technology. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  22. "Good Design - INNOVIA Monorail 300 System - 2012". The Chicago Athenaeum. The Chicago Athenaeum.
  23. disse, Diego (14 October 2016). "Monotrilho da Linha 15-Prata sai da estação com as portas abertas". Metrô CPTM (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  24. disse, Bruno (1 February 2019). "Metrô inicia remoção dos trens que colidiram na Linha 15". Metrô CPTM (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  25. "Sindicato dos Metroviários diz que acidente com monotrilho foi causado por ausência de sistema de comunicação". Diário do Transporte (in Portuguese). 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  26. "Metrô de São Paulo diz que mantém cobrança de consórcio por monotrilho inoperante e que pode mover novo processo se plano de retomada não for satisfatório". Diário do Transporte (in Portuguese). 6 May 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  27. "Problema "exclusivo" do monotrilho faz Linha 15-Prata operar em dois trechos". Metrô CPTM (in Portuguese). 3 January 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  28. "Monotrilho da Linha 15-Prata voltou a operar entre Vila Prudente e Jd. Planalto no fim da tarde desta segunda (01)". Diário do Transporte (in Portuguese). 1 June 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  29. "Linha 15-Prata retoma operação até a estação São Mateus". Metrô CPTM (in Portuguese). 18 June 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  30. "Baldy revela erros graves do consórcio responsável pela implantação da Linha 15-Prata". Metrô CPTM (in Portuguese). 22 April 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  31. "Os bastidores do incidente que fez a Linha 15-Prata ser paralisada há dois meses". Metrô CPTM (in Portuguese). 24 April 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  32. "Problema em pneu faz Metrô suspender operação da Linha 15-Prata do monotrilho". Metrô CPTM (in Portuguese). 1 March 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
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