Air filtering bus comes to Manchester

A special air-filtering bus is being rolled out in Greater Manchester to help tackle air pollution.

The air-filtering bus is being launched this summer by Go North West, which operates the 17 service locally between Rochdale and Manchester.

The single decker buses, which strip pollutant particles from the air as they drive, are also being deployed in other cities around the UK, with Go North West confirming that the new bus will be seen in the Rochdale borough 'from time to time'.

Each bus is fitted with an air filtering system made up of three fans on the roof that suck ultra-fine particles and dirt (known as PM10) into special filters.

The roll-out follows a successful launch in Southampton last year where initial tests showed that a single bus could remove as much as 65g of pollutants from the air – equivalent to the weight of a tennis ball – in a 100-day period (and cleaned 3.2 million cubic meters of city air).

The air filter takes in one cubic metre of air per second meaning that in one hour it filters the same volume of air as 6,000 people breathing.

Nigel Featham, Managing Director at Go North West, said: “We know that improving air quality is a huge priority in Manchester.

“Buses already make a positive contribution to air quality by taking cars off the road, and in addition to the Air Filtering Bus, we’ve recently invested £1million in a fleet of 12 low emission buses for Manchester, with further investment to follow.

“This innovation represents a further step we are taking to contribute to cleaner air.”

 

 

David Brown, Go-Ahead chief executive, said: “We want to play our part in tackling the crisis in urban air quality and show that buses can be integral to cleaning up our cities.

“Our air-filtering system has exceeded all expectations in how it can benefit the environment, and it builds on our track-record as operator of the UK’s greenest bus fleet.

“We believe the Air Filtering Bus provides a ‘quick win’ for councils as they explore initiatives such as Clean Air Zones to tackle toxic pollution.”

Health problems associated with outdoor air pollution are linked to 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide, according to the WHO.

In the UK, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) estimates that particulate air pollution reduces the life expectancy of residents by six months on average.

And recent research suggested that living in an area with high pollution worsens your memory to the same extent as ageing ten years.

Professors at the University of Warwick looked at levels of the PM10 pollutant, which comes from exhaust fumes, degrading tyres, vehicle exhausts and domestic wood burners.

The air filtering buses are designed to clean the air as they drive through a city, removing up to 99.5% per cent of particulate matter which travels through it.

It was initially deployed on one of the low-emission Euro VI buses run by Go-Ahead subsidiary Bluestar in Southampton.

Go North West was incorporated in 2019, taking over the former First Manchester operations at Queen’s Road depot, close to the centre of the city. Locally, it now operates the 17 service between Shudehill bus station and Rochdale interchange, via Middleton.