NJ Transit to test technology to combat coronavirus

New Jersey Transit earlier this week selected four companies to develop and test pilot technology that has the potential to improve the health and safety of riders and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following companies will participate in a multi-week testing program with NJ Transit:

• Knorr Merak will test a three-stage air filtration and purification system to mitigate COVID-19. The air filtration technology will be piloted on a light-rail car and a passenger-rail car.
• Piper will provides video analytics and collect real time passenger counts from trains and platforms for integration with mobile apps. NJ Transit is investigating the implementation of this technology on the River Line.
• Vyv will test proprietary LED antimicrobial light to reduce bacteria/microbes from surfaces. This technology will be tested on an Access Link paratransit minibus, a local transit bus, and within common areas throughout NJ Transit corporate buildings.
• Strongarm will develop wearable technology that emits physical distancing alerts and can be used to collect data for contact tracing. The proof of concept for this technology will be a select set of floors in NJ Transit headquarters at 1 Penn Plaza in Newark.

After testing is complete, solutions that have proven to be successful may be used for an expanded year-long pilot deployment, NJ Transit officials said in a press release.

The companies were selected from a pool of eight finalists after a global search as part of the COVID-19 Response Challenge issued by the Transit Tech Lab earlier this year. The Transit Tech Lab is a program of the Transit Innovation Partnership, a public-private sector initiative created to improve public transit.