Personal rapid transit — a mass transportation network that could carry passengers straight to their destinations in small private cars — has a long, fascinating, and often troubled history. But the first (and so far, only) PRT project in America has been running almost continuously in West Virginia since 1975.
West Virginia’s retro-futuristic pod car network in photos
Personal rapid transit lives on
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Last month, I visited the city of Morgantown to check out West Virginia University’s PRT, a five-station network that connects the school’s three campuses. The system, which uses small cars rolling on electrified guideways, was built to lessen the strain on Morgantown’s crowded roads as the university expanded. Today, students and faculty get a free pass, and everyone else pays fifty cents a ride.
I started looking at the WVU network while researching the Urbmobile, a ‘60s PRT prototype that was featured in Popular Science and Life magazine. But it’s worth checking out in its own right, too — so here are a few of the photos I took during my trip.
1/10The PRT’s Beechurst station, outside the downtown campus, soon after sunrise.
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