NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Thursday, announced that Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road are piloting a new technology to filter and purify the air inside rail cars using an electrical field to generate a wave of ionized particles that destroy airborne viruses, bacteria and particulate matter, including COVID-19. The MTA is the first transit agency in North America to test the technology.
https://midhudsonnews.com/2020/10/16/mt ... ter-rails/

Technical information page with links for those organizations that might see value in adopting this approach:

https://www.knorr-bremse.us/en/products/air_filtration___purification_systems/airfiltration.jsp

Here is a photo of the technology we use to circulate the air in our coaches...

I've read a lot about these supposed "ozone" or "hydroxyl generators" being marketed, at steep prices, to places like bars and restaurants to supposedly purify the air and kill viruses, including of course the COVID-19 virus. At least two business associates of mine now have full-time businesses promoting, marketing, and installing these devices in bars and restaurants, which have of course been hard hit by the pandemic and/or the counter-measures imposed in the wake. (One, mind you, is a former brewpub owner who closed his brewpub for good during the "shutdowns.")

The problem is that I have yet to find any neutral, independent study or analysis that these devices do (or, for that matter, don't do) as they claim, whereas you can find plenty of sites promoting how they supposedly do work--virtually all, of course, tied to businesses/websites wanting to sell you the technology. Any proper science skeptic will immediately see this as a "red flag" for potential "quackery."

Normally, by now I would have expected various science sites to have debunked this promotion, were it actual full-fledged quackery, but I have yet to find such reporting.

Hydroxyl and ozone generators have been used for a few years for odor removal in such places as smokers' lounges, or in clean-up of such things as damp basements, decomposition odors (dead animals or crime scenes), fire/smoke remediation, and the like. The difference is that you shouldn't stick around in a place using an ozone generator, while the hydroxyl devices claim to be safe for occupied spaces. (See https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality- ... r-cleaners ) I just haven't seen convincing evidence that the latter is effective for reducing virus risk in bars, transit vehicles, and the like. Yet.

But, of course, the "American Way" now seems to be "we HAVE to at least LOOK like we're doing something...... or someone will sue us....."

Kelly, that was a great answer. Thanks for the laugh

With, of course, the gentle reminder that Kelly's charges don't run at high speed through underground tunnels or on elevated tracks, or all year round with standing-room-only crowds........ yet.

Reading Company cars did all of that (well, 75 mph) and have similar air circulation equipment. Rain was a problem, though. Cinders in steam days, at least after the switch to soft coal.

Of course 3 of Kelly's cars are ex-R.Co.

Phil Mulligan