Alden staRRcar

The Alden staRRcar, short for "Self-Transport Road and Rail Car", was a personal rapid transit (PRT) system designed by William Alden in the 1960s. It originally envisioned small electrically powered cars suitable for short distance trips at low speed within urban areas, which could optionally merge onto tracks that would provide power and guidance for high-speed travel over longer inter-city distances. It was one of the earliest dual-mode vehicles to be proposed, and one of the earliest to be actually built.

Over its lifetime the design changed dramatically, originally a four-person vehicle with dual-mode operation but eventually emerging as a much larger people mover for 20 people. In this form, Boeing Vertol was awarded a construction contract in 1970 to build a demonstration system in Morgantown, West Virginia. A smaller system was also built by their licensee, Kobe Steel, and installed at the Expo '75 on Okinawa (as well as the more advanced CVS).^[1] The Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit system first opened for service in 1975, and with the exception of a closure for a major expansion, has remained in service since then.