PRT a 'guiding light' for South Korean visitors
Businessmen, engineers explore WVU's transit
System has been operating at university since 1975

by Grant Smith

(The Dominion Post, KRT via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)--WVU's Personal Rapid Transit system took center stage Monday before an audience of nine South Korean engineers, scientists and businessmen.

"They just want to see the system's operation," said Nam-Ho Kim, president of the Seoulbased Sky Car Co. and a member of the visiting group.

Following a ride on the PRT, the Koreans discussed some of the system's more technical aspects with PRT officials, said Bob Hendershot, assistant director of public safety and transportation at WVU.

"Right now they have a project funded by industry and the South Korean government to develop a PRT-like, automated technology to be used in various applications in South Korea," Hendershot said.

The transit system is a "sort of guiding light" for what the South Koreans want to do, Hendershot explained, because "it was extremely, extremely well-designed in the first place."

The PRT, which carried its first passengers in 1975, connects two depots in downtown Morgantown to engineering, health sciences and dormitory stops in Evansdale. Since its 1975 debut, the PRT has carried more than 67 million passengers.

WVU students, faculty and staff ride for free with their Mountaineer ID cards; all others pay 50 cents per one-way trip. The system includes 73 cars, each of which holds a maximum of 20 passengers.

Monday marked Dr. Seok-Youn Han's third trip to Morgantown. It was a first for his colleagues. Han is chief researcher for the Korean Railroad Research Institute's Urban Transit Engineering Corps.

According to Han, the trip will help facil- itate a feasibility study for similar systems in South Korea. Their visit here is part of an ongoing tour of similar facilities around the world to support a $50-million project to develop the next generation of PRT systems."We entertain quite a few people from ... all over the world," said Jim Hatcher, PRT operations manager and system programmer.

By "riding the rails," the Koreans saw the PRT from the customer's perspective. If you're going to be successful, you have to do it from the customer's viewpoint, Hatcher said.

Hendershot said the PRT has been safe, efficient and more costeffective than most other transit systems for the past 30 years.

Transit developers want to know a system will stand the test of time before they spend millions of dollars, he said, so before they make that investment, they turn to proven technologies like the PRT.

The PRT's costs also have been held "relatively constant," Hendershot said, pointing out that it is not subject to fluctuations in gasoline prices because its cars are electric-motor driven. "We are proof this kind of technology works in the long run," Hendershot said.