Which SkyTrain car model is the noisiest from inside the train?

Interior of a SkyTrain Mark I car. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Over the years, TransLink’s studies analyzing excess noise emitted from the passing trains on SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium lines have focused on monitoring outdoor noise near the guideway.

But what about the level of indoor noise that passengers experience onboard the trains?

According to the findings of data researcher Thierry Haddad, there is a clear interior noise difference between the old (Mark I) and newer (Mark II and Mark III) generations of trains.

This is based on 107 noise surveys — with each survey lasting for an average of 21 minutes — over the course of 57 days, representing the collection of 78,400 data points across 38 hours of data over a distance of 1,610 km on the same segment of the Expo Line.

“A few months ago, I conducted a project in Burnaby from which I generated an interactive noise map. While I was collecting data, I noticed how much the SkyTrain contributed to the ambient noise environment,” Haddad told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“I was aware of noise complaints coming from people living in the vicinity of the SkyTrain tracks. Because I had already developed an application to collect the data, I decided to study the acoustic environment from inside the SkyTrain cars and as experienced by commuters.”

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It should be noted that the Sound Pressure Level, expressed in decibels, was measured inside the trains with the windows closed. This means it does not mimic the way the human ear hears sounds.

Non-mechanical noise — such as human conversations, automatic train announcements, phone ringtones, and music — was filtered out in the analysis.

The original Mark I cars — a train model from the 1980s and early 1990s — expose riders to 82 dB on average, with the highest level of this car generation reaching 103 dB.

On the Mark II cars — a model of trains that arrived between 2000 and 2010, including the pre-Olympic sub-generation of the Mark II — the sound levels average at 78 dB, and reach up to 98 dB.

The newest SkyTrain model in use is the Mark III, which arrived between 2016 and 2020. It averages at 79 dB, and has a ceiling of 95 dB.

skytrain stadium chinatown station platform f

Mark I cars (left) and pre-Olympic generation Mark II cars (right); Expo Line platforms at SkyTrain Stadium-Chinatown Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Early 2000s model of SkyTrain Mark II cars. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Interior of a SkyTrain Mark I car. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

skytrain commercial-broadway station mark ii train 9

Interior of an early 2000s model SkyTrain Mark II train. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

With a 95% confidence, the average decibel level experienced onboard is between 82 dB and 84 dB on the Mark I, between 77 dB and 80 dB on the Mark II, and 78 dB and 80 dB on the Mark III.

SkyTrain cars with a noise average below 77 dB would be within the 25th percentile and considered the best-case scenario, while cars with an average greater than 83 dB would be within the 75th percentile and considered the worst-case scenario.

According to Haddad, the data shows there are statistically significant differences in the average decibel levels between the Mark I and Mark II cars and between the Mark I and Mark III cars, but no statistically significant difference exists between Mark II and Mark III.

Out of the 10 noisiest cars measured, the top eight were Mark I cars, while the ninth and 10th noisiest measurements were surprisingly from Mark III cars that went into service between 2018 and 2020.

Decibel level distribution after bootstrap. (Thierry Haddad)

Highest decibel level by car model (violin plot). (Thierry Haddad)

Relationship between average and highest decibel level. (Thierry Haddad)

Haddad suggests excess noise could be a sign that a car requires more maintenance attention.

But major improvements are coming: The entire Mark I fleet, the noisiest cars, will be entirely replaced by the new generation Mark V model.

The first five cars of an order of 205 Mark V cars arrived in Metro Vancouver in late 2023, and this train could enter service before the end of 2024 after extensive local testing. These new cars will be configured into fully articulated five-car-long trains, which will be SkyTrain’s longest and highest capacity trains yet.

By 2027, all 41 five-car Mark V trains should be in service, which will enable the full retirement of the fleet of 150 Mark I cars.

Although the Mark V is considered a new generation, it carries some similarities with the Mark III, but with various notable enhancements.

TransLink has also indicated that the original batch of Mark II cars that arrived in time for the 2002 opening of the original Millennium Line is targeted for replacement in the early 2030s.

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Mark III train at the Expo Line platforms at SkyTrain Commercial-Broadway Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Interior of a Mark III SkyTrain car. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

mark v skytrain translink test alstom kingston ontario august 2023

The first Mark V SkyTrain train being tested at Alstom’s facility in Kingston, Ontario, August 2023. (TransLink)

Mark V SkyTrain interior mockup. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Optimal design considerations that reduce the likelihood of excess noise will become more important as the SkyTrain network expands, and as the region becomes more reliant on public transit to get around.

As well, over the coming decades, the region will see significantly more residents living in close proximity to SkyTrain’s elevated and ground-level guideways due to new high-density, transit-oriented developments — especially with recent provincial and municipal policies encouraging such building typologies.

Today, the majority of the SkyTrain network is exposed to the elements, enabling the noise from passing trains to ripple through neighbourhoods; very extensive segments of the Expo and Millennium lines are at-grade/elevated within Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey, Port Moody, and Coquitlam. By 2028, the SkyTrain network will gain an additional length of 16 km from the completion and opening of the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension, which will be 100% elevated.

While the theoretical solution of tunnelling future extensions essentially eliminates all outdoor noise, the insulated noise within the tunnel can amplify the noise experienced by passengers waiting at station platforms and inside the trains.

“SkyTrain will become an even more important part of the public transportation network and needs to be a reliable and comfortable way to travel throughout the region. Yes, expanding the network is necessary but we need efficient ways to monitor noise emitted by the SkyTrain cars,” Haddad told Daily Hive Urbanized.

BC Parkway and SkyTrain Expo Line in the Metrotown area. (City of Burnaby)

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BC Parkway and SkyTrain Expo Line in the Metrotown area. (City of Burnaby)

2018 study evaluating SkyTrain noise in Vancouver. (TransLink)

In recent years, following the completion of a 2018 study on SkyTrain’s outdoor noise levels, TransLink has become much more proactive and reactive to issues of excess noise, with the most problematic areas generally being the original segments of the Expo Line in Vancouver.

For instance, in 2023, the public transit authority indicated that all three generations of cars used on the Expo and Millennium lines — even the Mark I cars with their limited remaining lifespan — will see the installation of new equipment called Top-of-Rail Friction Modifier (TORFM) tread sticks on the wheels. This will help prevent rail corrugation growth and as a result, reduce long-term noise by as much as nine decibels.

Other measures taken to date include replacing aging rail with harder steel rail, adding rail dampers, changing switch maintenance procedures, and improving rail grinding procedures.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized in September 2023, Sany Zein, the president and general manager of TransLink subsidiary BC Rapid Transit Company, said two brand new rail grinders were acquired in Summer 2023, which will enable his crews to catch up on rail grinding to reduce excess noise.

“Steel-on-steel will always be noisy to a certain extent, and we are very aware that we are neighbours. As density comes around us, we have an obligation to reduce the noise as much as possible. There are other things we can do, like experimenting with dampers around the rails to reduce vibration, and wheel treatments,” said Zein.

“We’re working with municipalities on design standards for new housing built around our stations — how can they make their housing as resilient as possible to noise? It’s something we always want to be managing, but we cannot promise that we will be a silent system. We understand the responsibility.”

The theoretical installation of platform screen doors to improve safety and security at SkyTrain stations could also help reduce the noise that passengers experience at stations. TransLink is currently in the process of studying the feasibility of platform screen doors.

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