It is disappointing, but not altogether surprising, to see Greenville County Economic Development Corporation (GCEDC) terminate its PRT procurement process. GCEDC is to be commended for trying to make something happen despite having little, or no, budget. I now hear rumors that LA is trying to do something similar. It boggles the mind that a city of that size cannot come up with a decent budget to explore a technology that could help revolutionize its transit system.

I think the lessons to be learned from Greenville include:

1. Having a business case sufficient to attract investors requires a bankable ridership study (not cheap).
2. While a large PRT deployment may pay for itself, any initial system is unlikely to and will need subsidizing in the interim.
3. PRT suppliers with commercially-available systems are unlikely to bid on projects where the community has no skin in the game.

If your community wants a PRT system, I suggest you use one of the consultant members of ATRAIG to undertake a feasibility study. This does not have to be very expensive. If this study has promising results, then you should find the funding for a bankable ridership study. Then you can put together a project that suppliers can bid on. I believe best results will be obtained if you can find a way to partner with suppliers, sharing both the risks and the rewards of the project.

As always, enjoy reading!

Best regards,

Peter Muller, ATRA President