Crown transmission by air conditioning? Deutsche Bahn says nothing about the filter question

Starting at: 3:04 p.m. The | Reading time: 4 minutes.

AWhen Airbus chief Guillaume Faury recently released business figures, he took the opportunity to announce particularly clean air in the cabins of his plane. Almost all of them are currently on the ground due to the crown pandemic. But the question soon arises which mode of transportation is the safest way to travel when needed: on a plane or on a train?

“It is the best place you can have,” Faury said of his airplane seats. Air flows from top to bottom air conditioning systems and is not distributed throughout the cabin. So-called Hepa filters also removed 99.99 percent of organic particles and substances. Viruses usually don’t go through those filters, either.

Airbus competitor Boeing also proudly refers to Hepa filters, “which actually filter the virus,” said chief David Calhoun. Even aircraft manufacturers cannot guarantee that you won’t get infected with Covid-19 in the next seat next to you. But at least viruses are not introduced into the cabin by the air conditioning system.

But does that also apply to trains? At Deutsche Bahn (DB), he squirms when it comes to the filters in his train’s air conditioning systems. Since the start of the Corona crisis in Germany, the group’s responses have been vague to vague. A DB spokesperson points out that transmission through ventilation or air conditioning systems “is considered almost impossible.”

“There are national and international standards for air conditioning systems for filtration and cleaning,” says the spokesperson. “These standards are also met in ICE fleet vehicles.” Questions about what standards they are, whether they prescribe filters that are at least as good as those used on airplanes, what filter material and class of filter are used, and how air flows in vehicles, all remain unanswered. ICE maker Siemens also does not want to answer questions regarding its customer Deutsche Bahn.

So what standards could it be that Deutsche Bahn claims to meet? The Federal Railways Authority (EBA) refers to the technical specifications for interoperability “Vehicles – Locomotives and passenger cars” (TSI LOC & PAS) established by the European Commission.

DB considers the filter issue to be of secondary importance

Behind the complicated name is a detailed regulation of what specifications trains must meet for approval. Section 4.2.5.8 also covers the topic “Indoor Air Quality”, but this is only about CO_2nd-Concentration in the car.

“The EBA, on the other hand, has no further information on the number, type and manufacturer of air conditioning systems on public passenger rail transport trains,” the authority said. “The legislator also does not establish special infection protection requirements for air conditioning technology used in trains.” Therefore, at the EBA, there is no knowledge of the standards that the train claims to meet.

DB considers the filter issue to be of secondary importance. “Mixing with particular outside air is said to have an additional effect that minimizes risk,” he says. “The proportion of outside air in the air conditioning systems of trains is significantly higher than that of airplanes.”

Knorr-Bremse also confirms that a high proportion of outside air can help protect against infection. The Munich group is one of the manufacturers of air conditioning systems for trains. They are not installed in the German ICEs, but in the sister trains of the same manufacturer in China, Spain and Russia.

In China, air conditioning systems with “active filter monitoring and algorithms to regulate the air mixture” were installed, which “were already used during the fight against the Covid crisis 19”.

And there are other technologies that could increase protection. Knorr-Bremse reports in detail that it also offers “active air or filter cleaning systems with ultraviolet lamps or nearby electric fields for particle separation or degradation,” which are installed on high-speed trains in Russia and China.

“These systems have been tested against bacteria and other microorganisms and their effects are currently being tested with the Covid 19 pathogens, which have not yet been fully described.” On the other hand, the question of Hepa filters remains unanswered.

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