After a successful trial in Southampton, air-cleaning buses that filter out pollution are to be rolled out to six more towns and cities across England.

Transport firm Go-Ahead’s Air Filtering Buses have three fans on the roof that strip pollutant particles from the air as they drive.

Each single-decker has three fans on the roof that suck ultra-fine particles and dirt into filters.

A trial of the technology in Southampton last year by Go-Ahead subsidiary, Bluestar, saw as much as 65g of pollutants – equivalent to the weight of a tennis ball – removed from the air by a specially-equipped bus over a 100-day period. The bus also cleaned 3.2 million cubic meters of Southampton’s city air.

A further five buses will be deployed in Southampton to join the first model by early next month. Similar buses will also be introduced to Brighton, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Plymouth and Crawley from this summer.

Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown said: “We want to play our part in tackling the crisis in urban air quality and show that buses can be integral to cleaning up our cities.

“Our air-filtering system has exceeded all expectations in how it can benefit the environment, and it builds on our track record as operator of the UK’s greenest bus fleet.

“We believe the Air Filtering Bus provides a quick win for councils as they explore initiatives such as Clean Air Zones to tackle toxic pollution.”