I’m sure most of you are just like me.  Petrified to take a flight anywhere (especially if you read my blog yesterday!) and about as scared to board a train (or- heavens to Mergetroid- to even consider a bus).  And, that’s NOT because of conditions at the destination- it’s because of conditions of transit.

I spoke yesterday about how safe we are on planes during the pandemic.    I know they keep telling us it’s safe, that they filter the air, and they change the air a lot.  Be real- they do filter the air. They move the air around.  But, change the air?  If we believed the statements many of these folks made, they’d be convincing us that the air is transferred every two minutes.  (Not blown- but replaced with fresh air.)  Except- the plane’s ventilation rate per passenger is lower than our breathing rate- so our breathing disrupts their top-down air flow.  To be safe in the age of COVID-19- the airlines need to up the air exchanges to about 40-and  change  the  air  flow  direction  to  bottom  up.

Which is exactly what some train operators are planning to provide.  In particular, the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road).

Back when I lived in New York, the LIRR was, um,  ‘impaired’.  Service was sketchy…well, service was regular, just never on time and the trains broke down. The rail cars ran from newish to older than the hills.  Air conditioning was iffy, heat was just as iffy, and windows didn’t always open to make travel conditons better.

And, our then governor, Nelson Rockefeller (you know, the one who had an edifice complex, always building something new in Albany) had his own version of alternative truths.  (Must be something about rich folks from New York. ) He declared the LIRR was the finest commuter railroad in the USA.    Yup- that would be true as long as the USA was comprised of only the 118 mile piece of land we know as Long Island.

The LIRR is much better now.  (Really.  Not just because it was so decrepit before.)   And, it is trying to make travel safe during COVID-time.   It won’t happen overnight either- most of the railroad cars are going to be missing the new ventilation needed to keep us safe.  But, some cars will change…

Right now, the LIRR uses standard air filters (like the ones we probably use for our home furnaces) in their HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units) systems. Rail car air is filtered 44X an hour, and admixed with about 1/3 fresh air.  (For comparison- your car filters air 12X an hour, and classrooms and restaurants (pre-COVID) effect about 6 air changes an hour. NY City subways exchange air every 3 minutes 20 seconds – which is exactly the rate that obtains for classrooms.)

Part of the reason the Long Island Railroad car air is exchanged so frequently is all the stops that the train makes- all the doors open every few minutes.  [Except there are 30 minute stretches where the doors don’t open.  Then, the air exchanges per hour are lower.]    The air filters are replaced about 4X a year (every 92 d)- but their MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) ratings are only a 7  (which means filtration goes down to about 3 microns at best); MERV 14 (about 0.5 micron filtration) is what is specified for airborne virus removal.  MERV ratings of 17 to 20 (<0.3 micron filtration)  are specified for surgical theaters and clean rooms.

But, the good news is that the LIRR plans to replace these HVAC units with an electrical grid system that should eliminate 99.995% of all airborne microbes and viruses.  Plus, the air will be ionized- that forces particulate matter (including viruses) to settle out of the air more effectively.  (This system has been developed by Merak [Madrid, Spain], the current provider of the LIRR HVAC systems.)

The good thing is that the LIRR is not usually packed from door to door.  Which condition would confound any potential HVAC purification system.

But that is why the NY Subway or DC Metro systems- which lack these HVAC wonders- can always be a problem.  (Not now during the pandemic, where ridership is down- WAY down.)   Besides lacking this sophisticated approach, their cars are often overpacked- putting the riders at risk.

The LIRR is also considering adding in UV lights (to destroy/kill bacteria and viruses) to their ventilation systems and an antimicrobial/antiviral solution to be applied to the train interiors.  This solution actually has results that last for several weeks, so applications need not be done daily or even weekly.

If the single car test provides the desired results, the LIRR will re-outfit all 1100 cars in their fleet in short order.

Let’s hope short is weeks and not months.