Letter to the Editor: March 3, 2010

PRT is a safe and reliable means of transportation

A recent article and subsequent editorial in The Daily Athenaeum carried errors and misinformation about the operation and safety of West Virginia University’s Personal Rapid Transit system.

The bottom line is the PRT is safer than any public transportation system in the country; in 35 years of operation, the PRT has carried more than 79 million passengers without a major accident and zero fatalities.

The inference from the editorial is that the "PRT is always down," but like most urban legends, it is not true.

I ride the PRT almost every day to and from work, and while delays due to downtime do occur, they are minimal.

That does not mean the PRT is a flawless system.

In fact, we are near the unveiling of a new Master Plan for the PRT that will bring needed improvements to all areas of the system, including automated train control systems, vehicles, power rail improvements and enhancements to guideway aesthetic and stations.

Still, these improvements will not be immediate and come at a very high price.

They will require considerable funding commitments from the U.S. DOT and WVU.

As to the specific incident that occurred Feb. 26 prompting the DA’s report and editorial; they were caused by arcing of the electrical phases.

This happens with all electric-powered transportation systems, and often can be caused by ice conducting electricity over two phases – as was the case Friday.

Contrary to the reporting, there was no vehicle fire and the fire department was not called.

Additionally, when the vehicles stop on a guideway, as happened Friday, PRT staff escort passengers in a safe manner with the power on the track turned off. While not common, this does happen occasionally.

Fact checking with PRT staff before releasing information that creates alarm about the safety would have gone a long way towards resolving this confusion.

I would welcome a constructive dialogue on the future of the mobility on campus as we complete the PRT Master Plan process.

Hugh E. Kierig
Department of Transportation and Parking

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3 comments

Ben Province

Thu Mar 4 2010 13:47

@anonymous

"How do you explain the photo of scorched metal? I little electrical arcing doesn't do that. "

It's not just a little electrical arcing, I think it trips at about 6,000A at 575v. That works out to almost 3.6 megawats. I can definitely see that kind of discharge destroying the track and causing a loud "boom" but it's not going to be an explosion.

As for reliability, from my experience, the PRT is much more reliable than the damn bus ever seems to be.

realist

Wed Mar 3 2010 08:30

The PRT was built almost 40 years ago as a pilot program for a system that was never built anywhere else. The fact that it is still working at all is nothing short of an engineering miracle.

Do students need a more reliable system? Yes. Should it go more places? Of course. But without a commitment of millions of dollars to rebuild, it's going to have to get along as is.

Anonymous

Wed Mar 3 2010 01:41

Sounds like the guy in charge is just trying to clean up his mistakes and bad name. The PRT sucks and isn't reliable.

How do you explain the photo of scorched metal? I little electrical arcing doesn't do that.

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