 "Photo: N/A")
Thirty five years and 60 million passengers later, the PRT at West Virginia University could be getting its first big overhaul since the tracks opened.
PRT staff and consultants held a public hearing May 5 to discuss the approximately $92.8 million master plan for PRT upgrades.
Proposed updates include replacement of the train controls, vehicle replacement and a power system upgrade, depending on whether funding is available.
"The current technology is so old it is difficult to find replacement parts and individuals who know how to repair the system," said Arlie Forman, associate director of Transportation and Parking at WVU.
Alternatives to the PRT were discussed at the meeting.
It was estimated by the PRT consultant team that it would take 34 full-size buses to serve the number of passengers the PRT transports on an average day.
Beechurst and University avenues' already busy traffic would be greatly impeded by an end to the PRT.
Since the PRT was originally a federal project, Forman and other consultants hope that the federal government will fund most of the upgrade.
"The PRT was a federal demonstration project – an experiment – that has turned into a successful transportation system," Forman said prior to the meeting. "It's the only public transit system in the world that provides direct destination-to-destination transportation, but in order to keep serving our customers with over 98 percent reliability, improvements have to be made."
Failures in the subsystems have caused drops in reliability and traffic back-ups.
With more than 30,000 passengers every day, the PRT staff works constantly to maintain the
aging system.
According to a WVU press release, a 2 percent drop in the system availability is about 20 minutes of downtime for the system, often leaving passengers stopped on the tracks.
"I would love to complain about the PRT, but it gets me where I need to be," said Sarah Lodge, junior pre-accounting major. "It is more convenient than the buses and
even though it breaks down, people use it."
Lodge said money should be spent on the PRT to improve it.