Tour of Skytrain Control

Last week I got to fulfill a childhood/teenage/adult dream: I got to see Skytrain control. One of my colleagues from the BC Youth Summit for Sustainable Transportation was able to organize a tour of their maintenance/operations facility.

We met outside Edmonds station and walked over to the very secure yards and we had to clear security and I was even scolded for taking a photo on my phone (though, luckily, we were allowed to take photos once we were inside).

Our first stop once inside was a boardroom for a presentation about the system. For instance, the Expo and Millennium lines carry the same amount of people as 12 lanes of freeway in the AM peak period in the downtown direction. It has grown from 114 cars in 1987 to 258 today. But enough about the boring stuff.

They then took us to Skytrain control. Outside the main room are these display panels of the system. Top panels are the Millennium line and the bottom are the Expo line. The panel to the bottom right is the maintenance yards.

Here, our guide is explaining what the panels say. The yellow lines of track are 'go slow' zones they implement where the train is told to slow down (in case of maintenance or, for instance, around the mainstreet/stadium area where the train tends to jerk a bit with high speed). Red track areas are off-limits to the trains. Fun fact, most of the trains run on a schedule. That is they need to be at their stations at a certain time. If they're early, they wait a bit longer in the station and if they're late, they leave a bit faster in order to catch up. During peak periods and events, they throw in some trains without schedules that just run in the system as they can (a huge advantage of an automatic system - no need to worry about drivers!).

He also explained that the system is super safe. The train all have multiple computers on them that work on consensus-like model. If one says something is wrong, the other computers (they may have up to 3) verify the situation and if they think that computer is whack (technical term), the train continues on its merry way. If all the computers are down or they all agree something is wrong, the train stops and is taken out of service.

 Us, listing and completely mesmerized by nerdy splendor.

And there she is, the brain of the operations: Skytrain control. This is the room that the whole system runs from I was actually surprised at how few people ran things. I guess that goes to show how automated the system is.

 This system overview screen is the power supply for the system. (ooohhh, ahhhh)

 I think these were emergency stops for the trains. Red buttons: it's hard to resist pushing them.

 View from the control centre of the maintenance years. Hello MK I's!

 Next stop were the maintenance shops.

Here some MK I cars were recieving a little love. They're usually hauled in every 20,000 km (I believe) and they travel roughly 400-500km/day.

While we were here, they were repairing a car with a broken door. So, DON'T HOLD/FORCE OPEN Skytrain doors everybody. It's just not cool, okay?

Here is a scale model of the MK I axel assembly (there's probably a better term for this). The wheels actually turn a bit which makes it steerable and provides a smoother ride along turns.*EDIT*
From Stephen Rees: Of course a computer on a Mark I is "old timer" - the cars are over 20 years old. And the word you are looking for is "axle". Conventional trains do not need steerable axles as the wheels are conical. The axles can tilt through curves. A steerable axle is needed on trains that use the linear induction motor as the gap tolerance between "stator" and "rotor" of a LIM is so small. *EDIT*

This is the actual computer aboard an MK I train. It's old-timey and glorious.

And that was it. I'd go back in a heart beat and I'd love to see more of the trains themselves. We're trying to take a look at the Surrey Transit Centre.