[ssiguy]

Actually it was YVR of all people that basically set the technology design, at least by default. Officially they didn't care what the actual technology itself was but at the same time wanted wide 3 meter trains for ease of use for luggage and wanted the trains to have luggage racks. They also had a strict guideline on fast the train must be from YVR to Waterfront.

They basically had the city and province over a barrel as they were not going to fork over their portion of the bill without getting what they wanted and they knew Campbell was going to build this line hell or high water for his Olympics. Well the width of the trains negated any of the current LIM SkyTrain and the time demands got rid of any at grade route so voila..............standard Metro trains.

YVR didn't state the technology but with their speed and train demands there really was only one technology available to Translink. The funny thing is, is that the trains never did get the luggage racks. Vancouverites also got screwed because the province swore up and down on the bible that eventhough the stations were small they could be easily extended to 60 meters to accommodate 3 standard Metro cars but they lied and can only be extended to 590 meters. Just like they lied when the said they would not cut and cover in the Cambie Village corridor.