Video: Antiviral fogging machines in action on West Midlands Railway

A powerful new cleaning tool in the fight against the spread of coronavirus has been unveiled by West Midlands Railway this week.

The operator – along with sister company London Northwestern Railway – has rolled out new state-of-the-art ‘fogging’ machines to its cleaning teams.

The machines create a mist which kills bacteria but is harmless to people. They are now being used on hundreds of train carriages across the West Midlands.

The hand-held ‘foggers’ can sanitise an entire train carriage in just a few minutes, including hard-to-reach corners. The foggers will mostly be used in depots overnight but can also be used by mobile teams at stations where needed.

The compound used in the fogging machines is a quaternary ammonia solution which is typically used in restaurants and the health care sector to sanitise non-clinical settings due to its ability to disinfect services. It is considered effective for infection protection.

To watch a video of the machine in action, click here.

Lawrence Bowman, deputy managing director of West Midlands Railway, said:

“The health and safety of our customers and colleagues is our top priority. These new machines are an important part of the enhanced cleaning regime we have put in place at our stations and on our trains.

“We have also recently stepped up our timetable to provide more capacity on the network and we are running longer trains to allow more space.

“We’re urging our customers who need to travel to help with social distancing by travelling at quieter times if possible and by wearing a face covering at all times.”