Bus will clean up air pollution as it drives around the city, using a filtration system on the roof

One of the UK’s largest bus and rail operators has launched the country’s first air filtering bus in an effort to tackle air pollution.

The Go-Ahead Group unveiled the Bluestar bus in Southampton on Thursday claiming that the new filtration system attached to the top of the vehicle will clean the air as it moves around the city.

Go Ahead chief executive, David Brown said: “We are going a step further in the potential for our buses to actively clean the environment. It’s a huge development in our environmental leadership and we are also proud to be pioneering the prototype in the UK.”

The diesel bus is fitted with a specially designed filter that its inventors say will remove ultra-fine particles from the air and trap them as the bus moves through the streets. The filter then allows the bus to blow out more pure air so that the air behind it is cleaner than that in front of it.

Brown said Southampton had been chosen for the prototype as the World Health Organization revealed that the city is at its limit of unsafe air pollution. It is also one of five cities tasked with drawing up air pollution plans by the government. Brown said that if the trial is successful it could be rolled out to Go Ahead’s entire fleet of more than 5,000 buses.