Raytheon's PRT 2000

Note: Work on PRT 2000 was discontined by Raytheon and the RTA in 1999.

The Raytheon Company developed a PRT technology called PRT 2000 . This project was jointly funded by Raytheon and the Regional Transportation Authority of Chicago which serves the suburbs in the Chicago region. The total project budget was around $40 million. The specifications for this technology were released in November of 1995 and provide some information about the test vehiclesbuild in Massachusetts. A test track was built and was used in Marlborough, Massachusetts and the first stage is became operational in May of 1996. The second stage was devoted to demonstrating the operation of three vehicles on an oval test track that will be approximately one-half mile long. This testing is began in the fall of 1996 and was completed in early 1998.  This technology was intended to be deployed in Rosemont, Illinois sometime in 1999.

A diagram of the proposed Rosemont PRT system is provided. The three loops shown are called the "core area" system. The area that would be served by this PRT system encompasses over 3,600 hotel rooms, over 3.9 million square feet of office space, restaurants totaling over 2,600 seats, over 775,000 square feet of meeting rooms and two proposed theaters with over 7,800 seats. It would connect a CTA's River Road rail station with the O'Hare Expo Center. Although the O'Hare International Airport is close-by (about 1.5 miles), no connection to it is planned at this time.

A full-scale mockup of the PRT 2000 vehicle was built by Raytheon and was displayed at several locations in the U.S. A photograph of this mockup is provided (130 kb).

For more information about the RTA end of this project, contact the Departments of Public Affairs and Planning, Regional Transportation Authority, 181 West Madison Street, Suite 1900, Chicago, Illinois 60602. The RTA published a progress report called PRT Update for a few years.

For more information about the Rosemont part of this project, contact the Village of Rosemont at (708) 825-4404 or the Rosemont Chamber of Commerce at (708) 698-1190.

Last modified: August 18, 2002