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BART Station Tests More Powerful UV Light, Air Filters to Reduce CORONA Virus Risk in Cars

2 mins read

This week, the Agency said that BART Station is doing more testing using powerful ultraviolet light rods and air filters in its train cars. This effort has been done for the safety of the passengers and reduces the risk of spreading the Covid-19 virus.

BART’S train changes its air around every seventy seconds. The agency is on the move on replacing air filters on each train. Authorities are now in the middle of their pilot program, installing filters capable of trapping smaller particles.

BART trains are ordinarily used filters that can trap between three and ten microns wide, while on their experiment, they use new filters capable of trapping small microns as 0.3 wide. The BART’s agency has more improvement with their trains as they have also tested the efficiency of UV-C light rods, which can destroy minute particles in the air.

BART’s concern that the installed rods may bump around while the train is in motion has not yet proven to be true. BART vehicle systems engineering manager Ben Holland said, “The UV light comes on when it’s supposed to. The safety features that are in place are working well.”

BART’s new train cars are expected to have both of these features permanent fixtures and are being tested in legacy train cars, which are not under warranty affecting new cars.

Moreover, BART’s agency is hopeful to see how it will work for the train cars to install finer air filters and UV-C light rods. Holland said, “Based on everything we have seen so far, it’s looking very promising.”

Thomas Lake

Resident tech nerd for the SF Times.