http://tags.library.upenn.edu/tag/NYTimes+prt PennTags Feed http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/17145 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/17145 June 11, 2007<br />City's White Elephant Now Looks Like a Transit Workhorse<br />By SEAN D. HAMILL<p>MORGANTOWN, W.Va., June 4 - During its troubled years of construction and testing in the early 1970s, the Personal Rapid Transit system that snakes through this hilly college town was derided as a fiasco and a waste of money that perhaps should be dynamited rather than finished.</p><p>But now, 32 years after it began operating, the P.R.T. - as most people here call it - is lauded as probably the best answer to the traffic that has found its way to these increasingly popular Appalachian hills.</p><p>&quot;I would hate to see Morgantown without the P.R.T. system,&quot; said Mayor Ronald Justice. &quot;We're a small town with big traffic issues, and the P.R.T. could be the reason we're able to continue our growth.&quot;</p><p>Originally built to shuttle students and employees between West Virginia University's two campuses, which sit two miles apart, Morgantown now sees it as more than just a way to get students to class on time. With commuting times increasing in the region, the university, which operates the system, is considering expanding it. </p><br />