It was designed as a system that would provide economic rapid transit service in the suburbs, which would have ridership levels between what a bus could serve at the low-end, or a subway at the high-end.

The company was much more active in developing and promoting this system, introducing a major new revision and winning several additional sales in New York City, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur and Yongin, near Seoul.

[5] By the mid-1960s, there was a growing awareness that the growth of the suburbs led to a flight of capital from the city cores, resulting in the urban decay being seen throughout the US leading to freeway revolts across North America.

Additionally, the system's linear induction motor did not require physical contact for traction, which meant it would run with equal capacity in snow or icy conditions.

[8] Construction of a test track on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition started in late 1975, but shortly after this Krauss-Maffei announced that development funding provided by the German government was ending.

The linear induction motor required very accurate positioning about 15 millimetres (0.59 in) above its "reaction rail" in order to work efficiently and the slight give in the wheels was enough to make this a problem.

[15] By the late 1970s, it appeared there were no more technology issues to overcome and efforts turned to debugging the system and developing methods for mass production.

The platform had to be raised to the higher floor height of the ICTS, but UTDC claimed the vehicle would be able to make its way around the existing 18-metre (59 ft) radius loop at 10 km/h (6.2 mph) without additional modification.

As early as 1978, the city had been planning a transportation-themed event for its centennial in 1986, and in 1980 they won the rights to host the Expo '86 World's Fair, giving it the theme "Transportation and Communications".

The city is newer than Toronto and more spread out, making a traditional subway unattractive – precisely the problem that the ICTS had been designed to solve.

[16] Detroit had been one of six cities selected for rapid development under the United States Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) Downtown People Mover (DPM) program.

The UTDC responded to a "buy American" clause in UMTA by opening a branch office in Detroit, and that immediately swung the decision in their favour.

[20] Bombardier started a redesign effort for the ICTS, resulting in the larger, advanced rapid transit (ART) Mark II vehicle.

Compared to the original ICTS (retroactively named Mark I), the newer ART cars are longer with more seating, and have a more open layout inside.

These versions of the Mark II design won several more contracts, and are currently operating on the Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur, the Airport Express, Beijing Subway in China (in four-car trains), and the YongIn EverLine near Seoul in South Korea.

In the original system, the current loop also provided positioning by crossing the lines every metre, with an onboard sensor counting the number of times the polarity changed.

[citation needed] This led to the Scarborough Rapid Transit vehicles being modified at a high cost to include operator cabins and conventional controls.

The original versions of Innovia Metro were based on a linear induction motor (LIM) using vehicle-mounted windings and a track-mounted stator consisting of a thin aluminum plate mounted flat between the rails.

The small size and flat shape of the motor, and its lack of a transmission connected to the bogies, allows the ART to be much closer to the ground than a traditional subway car.

The Innovia Metro vehicle was built using a lightweight aluminum frame riding on two sets of articulated trucks using small steel wheels.

The Kuala Lumpur and Beijing systems, along with New York's Airtrain JFK, also incorporate platform screen doors commonly found in automated people movers around the world.

Prior to a change in approach to marketing and the introduction of the "Metro" branding, Innovia ART 100 and 200 technologies were sometimes referred to as "light rail", especially in Asia.

In 1981, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) was planning to build a streetcar line serving the city's eastern district of Scarborough, but the Ontario provincial government convinced it, by threatening to withhold funding, to switch to the Innovia ART 100 technology.

[21] Although its Innovia ART 100 trains are capable of driving themselves, the TTC chose to run them semi-automatically with operators on board in order to keep peace with their main union.

This led to problems with the wheels being rubbed flat in spots when the brakes were applied too strongly, producing buzzing noises when running at speed.

[28][29] A continuation of the Millennium Line from Arbutus station farther west to the University of British Columbia is pending the outcome of local public consultations.

Although most other cities on the UMTA list simply gave up on their plans, Detroit decided to press ahead with the portion they could build with the funds they already had, and completed the downtown loop.

[32] In October 2022, Rapid Rail, the operator of the Kelana Jaya Line, announced an order for 19 additional Innovia Metro 300 trainsets (76 cars) at a cost of RM1.72 billion (US$385 million).

[36] The Airport Express of the Beijing Subway, opened in July 2008, uses Innovia ART 200 technology, with a fleet of 40 locally manufactured vehicles.

SkyTrain cars can also be seen in the opening credits of 21 Jump Street [49] and variously in Smallville, The X-Files and in numerous other filmed productions shot in Vancouver.