Safety of Staff on Public Transport

Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 11:56 am on 15 July 2020.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 11:56, 15 July 2020

Minister, we've known for a long time that the risks associated with air travel are lower, because of the air filtering systems that planes are fitted with, and it looks now as though that sort of technology might be more widely available for other transport. Own Buses in Warrington is thought to be the first bus company in the world to install air cleaning devices across its entire fleet in order to protect its drivers from the risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19. Eighty-six AirBubbl air cleaning devices have been fitted, which filter more than 95 per cent of airborne viruses and contaminated particulates out of the air. It strikes me, Minister, that this is the sort of innovation that would help with dealing with the current pandemic, but is also a good innovation, moving forward, for its own sake anyway. So, is this the sort of technology that perhaps the Welsh Government could look at encouraging buses and perhaps other forms of public transport to adopt moving forward, to make sure that, yes, staff and drivers are protected, but also that it's as clean an environment as possible for the passengers on public transport?