The system connects the three Morgantown campuses of West Virginia University (WVU) and the city's downtown area.

Free busing was offered to move students between the campuses, but all the roads led through the city center, creating gridlock more typical of a megacity.

[7] In the late 1960s, Samy Elias, who led WVU's industrial engineering department, learned of experiments with PRT in the U.S. after the HUD reports were published.

[7] Gathering support from WVU, the City of Morgantown, and West Virginia's congressional delegation, Elias arranged a $50,000 development grant from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) for a comparative study of three PRT systems: the Monocab, Dashaveyor, and the Alden staRRcar.

[7] Political pressure by Senator Robert Byrd led Secretary John Volpe of the then-new United States Department of Transportation to propose that Morgantown be used as an experimental site for PRT development.

President Richard Nixon had expressed strong support of the PRT concept, and Volpe was trying to arrange to have an experimental system well underway before the next presidential election, in November 1972.

[7] Examining the proposals, the UMTA decided that Alden was far too small to be able to handle the job, and arranged for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to take over as systems management role, signing a contract with them in December 1970.

Instead of an accomplishment that would work in Nixon's favor, the system became a political chess piece and was derided in the press as a white elephant.

[10] Morgantown's economy boomed in the 2000s and the city was noted for having the lowest municipal unemployment rate in the U.S.[11] Mayor Ronald Justice said, "We're a small town with big traffic issues, and the PRT could be the reason we're able to continue our growth.

[9] On November 30, 2016, the system had its first reported accident when two PRT cars were involved in a crash between the Beechurst and Walnut stations.

[14] A driver, on nearby Mon Boulevard, was also taken to the hospital after their vehicle collided with another boulder that was part of the same disturbance.

It has three-phase 575 VAC, 60-Hz propulsion power rails on the sidewall that are equipped with electric heating for cold weather operations.

The wheels of the vehicles steer slightly toward whichever side is powered to ensure that they stay in firm electrical contact with the rails.

[citation needed] Each car has four-wheel steering to help negotiate the tight turns in the PRT guideways, especially around stations.

[citation needed] The system connects the university's campuses via five stations (Walnut, Beechurst, Engineering, Towers, Medical) along a 3.6 mi (5.8 km) route.

The guideway consists of concrete pathways with magnetic induction loops that provide car location data.

The system's concrete pathways have embedded pipes that circulate a glycol solution, which is heated at stations to help melt snow and ice prevalent in Morgantown's snowy winter climate.

[4] Morgantown PRT operates chiefly as transportation for WVU's students and, as such, runs primarily during class days.

The report considered replacement of the PRT with buses but concluded they would be unsatisfactory given the extra traffic congestion and poor travel times that would result.

[26][4] Part of the phase 1 work to upgrade the vehicles' control and propulsion system was completed by early 2014 and resulted in improved operations.

[29] Replacement of the train control system will continue during the fall 2017 and spring 2018 semesters in preparation for full-scale testing and commissioning during the summer of 2018.

In addition to receiving new software, Phase II also includes replacing electric boards and sensors on the guide ways and signs.