City Staff Recommends Magnetic Levitation Train for Toronto Zoo

It's not quite a monorail, but visitors to the Toronto Zoo could once again have the opportunity to try out a new transportation system that will allow them to move quickly to the busy zoo.

City staff recommends to the Toronto Zoo Board of Trustees to approve the construction of a fully functional Magnetic Levitation Train (Maglev).

With an estimated price of $ 25 million, the train would be fully built and paid for by Magnovate Transportation Inc., a consortium of companies that approached the zoo with an unsolicited proposal for construction.

Magnetic levitation technology uses magnetic forces to float a vehicle on a guideway, thus reducing friction, allowing for fast acceleration and high speeds. According to Magnovate, technology also uses less energy than other technologies because it hardly loses energy to track friction.

The company wants to introduce a low-speed magnetic levitation system that mimics Maglev high-speed trains already in service in Shanghai, China, and Linimo, Japan.

The Maglev train would replace the monorail Domain Ride, which operated at the zoo between 1976 and 1994 and would be partly built on a remaining infrastructure of that time.

"Magnovate's collaboration with the board of directors would lead to the creation of a Maglev ride on the zoo site, which will not only serve as Magnovate's prime location, but also create a new attraction for visitors to the network zoo. public transit in North America, "says staff report. "This will serve to improve the mobility options at the zoo and would be an opportunity to demonstrate sustainable technologies."

The closed, air-conditioned vehicle would operate all year round.

Magnovate's proposal states that the Toronto Zoo would be the perfect place to introduce the technology.

"The existing infrastructure at the zoo would be a great place to start building the world's first Magline commercial system," the proposal says. "It is well suited to Magline's technology from a structural point of view and avoids the substantial cost of building an infrastructure from scratch for our development program."

The company introduced its train as "a revolutionary development of maglev (magnetic levitation) propulsion".

"It's a quiet, friction-free and energy-efficient powertrain that can run without the use of carbon-based fuels. Solar panels mounted on stations and other elements of the infrastructure can largely meet the daily energy needs of the system, "says the company's proposal.

If the Toronto Zoo Board approves of the idea at its meeting next week, Magnovate will start fundraising for the construction of the project, which it hopes will introduce the technology to a North American audience. American.

The zoo train would be the first Maglev commercial train in North America. Magovate hopes to commercialize the technology and expand its use to public transit systems.

According to the proposal, Magnovate would maintain and operate the ride for 15 years, then entrust it to the zoo, while maintaining the system and equipment under a service contract.

Magnovate and the board would share 50/50 net revenues after operating and financing costs. The staff report provides a price of between $ 12 and $ 18.

About 28% of the visitors to the zoo made a monorail tour at the time. Magnovate has based its potential revenue forecast on capturing 15% to 35% of the zoo's 1.2 million annual visitors.

Once funding and approvals are in place, the project would take about three years.