Bed bug fight: SEPTA installs 900 plastic seats in the next few years



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Fabric seats are much harder to clean.

SEPTA buses move from fabric seats to plastic seats - which would facilitate future bedbug infestations

Danya Henninger / Billy Penn

Sept. 7, 2018
·
09:00.

SEPTA spends more and more money every year replacing old buses and subway cars with new vehicles.

At least some of this money is spent on installing plastic seats – which could reassure those who have seen the viral video of bedbugs crawling on a fabric seat on a Route 26 bus.

For about two or three years, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch has been working to replace the upholstered benches in his entire bus fleet with plastic benches. Up to now, 500 buses have already been equipped with new seats, leaving 900 seats that will either be replaced by the new model.

That will happen over the next three or four years, Busch said. The transportation company's 2019 budget for new vehicles is $ 75 million – and is projected to increase to $ 83 million by 2020 and then to $ 80 million annually.

The change of places is underway on the El road. Of the 218 cars in the Market Frankford range, 180 have already been equipped with plastic. (The Broad Line Line and SEPTA trolleys are already equipped with plastic seats, so no changes are necessary.)

What does this have to do with bed bugs? In general, insects of this type are very effective for navigating the tissues. They have more difficulty climbing smooth surfaces. The new seats will not solve the problem completely, admitted Busch, but they should help.

"It's certainly better for a situation like this, where there may be insects on the vehicle," Busch said. Billy Penn. They are also more sustainable and more efficient to maintain, he said. Just say, "They are easier to clean."

When, on Wednesday night, a SEPTA bus was traveling on Route 26 with bed bugs, there was instant internet panic.

The original author of the post, a woman named Crystal Lopez, wrote on Facebook [sic]:

"It's disgusting that it proves that the septa are not clean. You know how many people took bedbugs home yesterday. This is unacceptable.

Busch noted that SEPTA reacted as quickly as possible and removed both this Route 26 bus and another infested bus on Route R

"We certainly do not want anyone to have such experience," Busch said. "But it's not a daily thing and we act quickly when we see it."

"I hope they get the image we jump in to answer it," he added. "And we have a global plan to fix it."

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