By Ben Conley, The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN – They would never admit it, but the folks responsible for keeping West Virginia University’s little blue Personal Rapid Transit cuboids (PRT) plugging along must certainly be embroiled in a kind of love-hate relationship.
One of those, ‘Sure, he can be a cantankerous jerk, but he’s OUR cantankerous jerk,’ kind of deals.
I mean, what do you say about a one-off system built 50 years ago for which you must source a very specific hydraulic pump designed for a very specific Vietnam-era helicopter?
And what do you call a system for which the most common wear points are spring-loaded collector arms manufactured specifically for the PRT by a single maker based on an original pattern utilized solely in overhead gantry cranes?
Well, if you’re WVU Transportation Director Jeremy Evans, you call it an icon that remains critical to the daily operations of the university.
Image: Courtesy of The Dominion Post