WVU PRT cost to rise to $230 million

WVU is in phase 2 of its $100 million upgrade of its PRT, the Personal Rapid Transit System that has little blue and gold cars running around the 3 campuses and downtown Morgantown without drivers to take students from one class to another.

This phase -- installing the guide way infrastructure and hardware – is scheduled for completion by Aug. 10, in time for the Sept. 5 Mountaineer Field opener against Georgia Southern.

Phase three in the summer of 2016 will concentrate on vehicles and power distribution.

Since the PRT began in 1975, 12,000 to 18,000 passengers are transported daily. 

During the current PRT shutdown, the Mountaineer Station shuttle service will try to handle the load, starting the week of May 18. Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Stops include Mountaineer Station, Towers and the Coliseum.

This is a free service for WVU students.

Sammy Elias got the ball rolling, with a huge financial boost via Sen. Robert C. Byrd steamrolling the federal government into making the 3 WVU campuses and downtown Morgantown its first PRT experimental project.

The cost was projected at $15 to $20 million. But the final bill was $62 million. After expansion in 1979 to grow to 71 vehicles and 5 stations, the total cost grew to $130 million.

And the latest project in 2015 and 2016 will bring that total to $230 million, unless there are more cost overruns, a regular event in WVU PRT history.

Each car has 8 seats and poles for 12 more standing passengers to use to hold onto.