MCTS bus filters fight COVID

MILWAUKEE - They’ve been in use since February, but on Monday, May 24 FOX6 News got a look at some new tech on Milwaukee County Transit System buses.

If you’ve taken a ride on an MCTS bus at least once since the coronavirus pandemic started, you know a lot has changed.

"Every night at the end of the run of the bus, every single bus gets desanitized," said Joe Price, MCTS.

In addition to the masks and hand sanitizer, a new set of filters is helping to keep the air you breathe inside the cabin safe.

"We have a filter that’s in the back of the bus," said Price. "There’s under-seat heaters, vent, and also, there’s a defrost heater up by the driver. When we change out the filters, we’re going to add a chemical, bioactive chemical spray to the filters that extends the life of the filtration of the filters."  

A disinfectant spray is applied between changes, helping the filters catch more and take you farther.

"We’ve been doing this since about February of this year, and so we just want to continue letting the folks know what we have been doing because we know there are a lot of questions out there about what are we doing now to continue to spread, especially as we see masking requirements being lifted," said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

While many are taking steps to ditch masks, you'll still need to wear them on MTCS buses.

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"If you think about it, the CDC said that as of June 1 we’ll be able to lift these mask requirements except in certain settings, and Milwaukee County buses is one of those settings," said Crowley.

In addition to buffing up their buses, MCTS is also looking to bolster their ranks, hosting a job fair Tuesday, May 25.