I am getting so sick of this SkyTrain is proprietary crap I am going to puke. Whether you absolutely LOVE SkyTrain or detest it with a passion I don't care but it is NOT proprietary. Again, it is NOT proprietary. Did I mention yet that SkyTrain is NOT proprietary? When Toronto built the SRT is was proprietary under Bombardier but in case the TTC missed it that was 35 years ago. Back then a low-floor streetcar would have been proprietary but then so was the Sony cassette player.
Today LIM is not only common but being built increasingly more frequently as it is ideal for automated operation which many systems are converting to. So, here's the list.............. Tokyo, Toei, Osaka, Yokohama, Kobe, Sendai, Fukuoka, Beijing, Yongin, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur Metro systems as well as New York, Detroit, and of course, Vancouver. There are several LIM train/Metro manufacturers in China as well as the big boys of Kawasaki, Hitachi, and Bombardier coming in all shapes and sizes. Several of those cities get decent amounts of snow and are just as cold in the winter as Toronto so that shoots that excuse all to hell. As I write this it is -1C in Beijing.
Now unless Toronto is going to have the audacity of saying that China, Japan, and S.Korea know far less about urban transit than Toronto I politely suggest that this excuse of the SRT being proprietary come to a screeching halt. The failure of the SRT has NOTHING to do with the technology and EVERYTHING to do with the TTC letting it rot into the ground.