A boiler malfunction coupled with the inclement weather has West Virginia Universitys people-mover running hot and cold between the engineering and Beechurst Avenue stations.

Officials with WVU s Personal Rapid Transit are asking students and other users to be patient and pray for warmer temperatures as they try to remedy the situation.

If the temperature would go up a few more degrees, it would help dramatically,said Bob Hendershot, assistant director of public safety and transportation.

Cars are running sporadically between the engineering and downtown stations, Hendershot explained.

Weve been able to keep most of the guideway clear in that area, but weve had a couple of instances during heavy snow where it has built up a little bit and weve had to manually remove the snow and ice from the guideway,he said.

The University has been busing students between the two campuses at times the PRT is not running, he noted.

Problems started earlier this week when one of the boilers that heat the solution used to de-ice that section of guideway malfunctioned, Hendershot said. Delval Corp. of Washington, Pa., has been awarded the contract to repair the 30-year-old boilers beside Stansbury Hall.

The situation grew worse with Tuesdays drop in temperatures and Wednesdays intermittent snow, he added.

The boiler being down has reduced our heating capacity, and then we get the continued snow,he said.One problem leads to another, and were doing our best.