The single deck ‘Bluestar’ prototype is fitted with fans on the roof to draw air into a filtration system, trapping ultra fine particles such as those created by tyres or braking.

“The idea is that the air behind the bus will be cleaner than in front of it,” commented bus operator Go-Ahead Group’s chief executive David Brown, who spoke at a fringe event on tackling congestion and air quality at the Conservative Party Conference.

“If you are a local authority planner or a civic leader you actually have very few policy options to deal with air quality,” he told the event. “You can ban vehicles or you can change the vehicles that are allowed on the roads, but those are quite radical policies.

“We want to make buses more relevant and say, actually, you could invest in buses with air filters and you will be cleaning the air at the same time as providing congestion relief.”

He explained that a major source of pollution in Southampton comes from ocean liners arriving into the docks. “We can’t stop that from happening,” said David Brown. “But we can clean up the air in the high street, around bus stops and on routes that the bus takes, and that has to be a good thing.”

The Southampton trial will run for three months and could – it is said – clean air within a radius of 10m around the bus.

Also speaking at the fringe event, sustainable transport specialist Professor David Begg commented: “This is exactly the type of innovation that we need. We have got a huge perception problem in that people think buses are the cause of pollution in city centres, but they are actually the solution, especially with Euro VI vehicles coming in.
“If Go-Ahead gets this right, even if there are no passengers on the bus they will be helping to clean up the air.”

Photo Credit: Go-Ahead