 | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Rapid Transit Signalling |
| Founded | December 31, 1998 |
| Defunct | May 31, 2024 |
| Successor | Hitachi Rail |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Products | SelTrac |
Number of employees | 2000 |
| Parent | Thales Group |
Thales Rail Signalling Solutions was a division of Thales Group that supplies transportation-based automation solutions[ buzzword ] for railways. Its operations are controlled from several locations:
The original moving block signaling system for rapid transit was introduced by Urban Transportation Development Corporation (an Ontario Crown corporation) for its Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS). In 1985, the ICTS technology was successfully implemented on three new railway lines in North America, all of which continue to use the system today:
UTDC's rolling stock manufacturing operations were later absorbed by Bombardier Transportation, who divested the signalling technology to Alcatel-Lucent. In April 2006, Thales Group announced it would be acquiring Alcatel Rail Signalling Solutions in a deal which also raised Alcatel's ownership of Thales to 21.66 percent.
In August 2021 Thales announced that the ground transportation business was to be sold to Hitachi Rail for €1,660 million. [1] [2] The process has been completed on May 31, 2024. [3]
Various railway signalling systems:
Besides its signalling solutions[ buzzword ], Thales additionally develops electronic interlocking systems, axle counters that can replace track circuits, various types of point machines, and railway worker protection systems.
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks.
Line 3 Scarborough, originally known as Scarborough RT (SRT), is a defunct medium-capacity rapid transit line that was part of the Toronto subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line ran entirely within the eastern district of Scarborough, encompassing six stations and 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi) of mostly elevated track. It connected with Line 2 Bloor–Danforth at its southwestern terminus, Kennedy, and terminated in the northeast at McCowan. Until its closure in July 2023, the system had a ridership of 3,908,000 per year.
Thales S.A., trading as Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris' business district, La Défense, and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.
The Tsuen Wan line is one of the ten lines of the metro network in Hong Kong's MTR. It is indicated in red on the MTR map.
The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to the convictions of General Motors (GM) and related companies that were involved in the monopolizing of the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and subsidiaries, as well as to the allegations that the defendants conspired to own or control transit systems, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. This suit created lingering suspicions that the defendants had in fact plotted to dismantle streetcar systems in many cities in the United States as an attempt to monopolize surface transportation.
Innovia Metro is an automated rapid transit system manufactured by Alstom. Innovia Metro systems run on conventional metal rails and pull power from a third rail but are powered by a linear induction motor that provides traction by using magnetic force to pull on a "fourth rail" placed between the running rails. However, newer versions of the technology are available with standard electric rotary propulsion.
The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The subway system is a rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rail lines operating predominantly underground. As of October 2024, three new lines are under construction: two light rail lines and one subway line.
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) is a former Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced light rail mass transit systems. It developed significant expertise in linear propulsion, steerable trucks and driverless system controls which were integrated into a transit system known as the Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS). It was designed to provide service at rider levels between a traditional subway on the upper end and buses and streetcars on the lower, filling a niche aimed at suburbs that were otherwise expensive to service.
Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Bombardier Transportation had many regional offices, production and development facilities worldwide. It produced a wide range of products including passenger rail vehicles, locomotives, bogies, propulsion and controls. In February 2020, the company had 36,000 employees, and 63 manufacturing and engineering locations around the world. Formerly a division of Bombardier Inc., the company was acquired by French manufacturer Alstom on 29 January 2021.
Safetran Systems Corporation was an American company that manufactured switch machines, railroad wayside signal systems, rail transit signaling and rail-highway level crossing active warning systems.
The Toronto subway uses a variety of signalling systems on its lines, consisting of a combination of fixed block signalling and moving block signalling technologies.
SelTrac is a digital railway signalling technology used to automatically control the movements of rail vehicles. It was the first fully automatic moving-block signalling system to be commercially implemented.
Rail transport plays a crucial role in connecting various regions of Thailand, transporting both goods and passengers through a range of transportation options that include inter-city and commuter rail, mass rapid transit, monorails, and airport rail links. The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) operates a network of intercity railways spanning 4,845.1 kilometers, covering 47 provinces across the country. SRT is committed to developing railway lands through its subsidiary, SRT Asset (SRTA), which focuses on transit-oriented development (TOD) initiatives. The Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal in Bangkok serves as the primary transportation hub for rail transport in Thailand, connecting various types of rail transportation throughout the country. It covers an area of 274,192 square meters, making it the largest railway station in Southeast Asia, and is situated in a new central business district (CBD) that is currently being developed.
GO ALRT was a rapid transit system proposed by GO Transit in 1982. The ALRT system would have been implemented along two new lines in the Greater Toronto Area. It would have utilized a new electric train to provide interurban service, then referred to as "inter-regional rapid transit", along the existing and new GO corridors. The system was based on an enlarged UTDC ICTS vehicle that was designed to offer a compromise between passenger capacity and the level of infrastructure needed. The project was cancelled due to budget cuts by the Tory government in 1985. However, a number of the proposed lines were later implemented using conventional heavy rail systems, including the eastern portion of the Lakeshore East GO train service route from Pickering station to Whitby station in the Durham region.
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separated rapid transit line below ground surface through a tunnel can be regionally called a subway, tube, metro or underground. They are sometimes grade-separated on elevated railways, in which case some are referred to as el trains – short for "elevated" – or skytrains. Rapid transit systems are railways, usually electric, that unlike buses or trams operate on an exclusive right-of-way, which cannot be accessed by pedestrians or other vehicles.
Hitachi, Ltd. Railway Systems Business Unit, trading as Hitachi Rail, is the rolling stock and railway signalling manufacturing division of Hitachi outside Japan.
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The LRT Ampang Line and the LRT Sri Petaling Line are medium-capacity light rapid transit (LRT) lines in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The combined network comprises 45.1 kilometres (28.0 mi) of tracks with 36 stations and was the first railway in Malaysia to use standard-gauge track and semi-automated trains. The lines are operated as part of the Rapid KL system by Rapid Rail, a subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia.
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.
Communications-based train control (CBTC) is a railway signaling system that uses telecommunications between the train and track equipment for traffic management and infrastructure control. CBTC allows a train's position to be known more accurately than with traditional signaling systems. This can make railway traffic management safer and more efficient. Rapid transit system are able to reduce headways while maintaining or even improving safety.
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