Door buttons that aren't used

[bwhughes]

The 1995 and 1996 stocks both have passenger 'door open' buttons but as far as I can recall they have never been used!

Both stocks were designed to take quite a few of the details in the Jubilee Line 1983 Stock, such as window size (dismally small compared to the 1992 Stock on the Central Line) with the exception of the single-leaf doors being disbanded for obvious reasons!

The 1983 stock had passenger-operated door buttons to prevent doors opening unless operated by passengers, keeping the heat in when not opened at open-air stations on the Jubilee Line (I have seen this feature in pictures of a preserved driving car)

so this feature must have been added on the 96 stock for the same initial reasons.

Drastic increase in passenger numbers (which means loading/unloading efficiency is critical), combined with the use of PEDs (platform edge doors) on the Jubilee Line Extension must have been what made the passenger-operated buttons being made redundant.

However, simply because they are there, many a passenger who have entered the platform when the doors have just closed, have tried pressing the buttons to get in, but to no avail! ;D

[towerman]

When the 96 TS was first introduced passenger open was used,but when the extension opened the PED doors on the new stations made this redundant.

[Deleted]

No LU Stocks have the door open / close buttons used for passenger operation anymore - they are driver controlled only.

[Deleted]

In the latest issue of Underground News, the perennial back-and-forth debate on passenger door controls are heating up again WRT the S Stock - according to the article I read, the existence of the DLR is now being leveraged as an excuse by some to implement it on the S stocks. IIRC, prjb has discounted it in the New Trains forum.

[prjb]

It is current LU policy that any stock fitted with customer door open buttons have this facility disabled. On the refurb 'D' Stock we removed this feature in line with that policy. The use of customer open causes dwell times to increase and was also found to cause confusion for customers. I am not certain on this point, but I would imagine the system would not sit too well under RVAR (Rail Vehicle Acessibility Regulations - DDA for trains!) either.

09ts for the Victoria line will not feature this facility at all. I am going to start a thread on 'S' stock for this in the new trains forum in due course.

[Deleted]

bwhughes said:

However, simply because they are there, many a passenger who have entered the platform when the doors have just closed, have tried pressing the buttons to get in, but to no avail! ;D

This happens with the D stock as well, even though the buttons have been oou for about 6 years now. I sometimes wonder what sort of jobs some of our passengers do, as many seem to show little intelligence when using the LU system.

[william]

Passenger door buttons were never a good idea in the past and re- introducing them in the 70's has proved to be folly.

[Tubeboy]

bwhughes said:

The 1995 and 1996 stocks both have passenger 'door open' buttons but as far as I can recall they have never been used!

Didnt the 95s have [when they were first introduced] passenger operated doors? I remember travelling on them a few times and remember this facility being used.

[version3point1]

prjb said:

The use of customer open causes dwell times to increase and was also found to cause confusion for customers. I am not certain on this point, but I would imagine the system would not sit too well under RVAR (Rail Vehicle Acessibility Regulations - DDA for trains!) either.

I can agree with you on this point totally prjb. Having shadowed an I/O on the 96TS for a reasonable amount of time, he also found that this was the case, though some T/Ops still insisted on using the facility in adverse weather conditions on open sections of the line.

[edb]

version3point1 said:

Some T/Ops still insisted on using the facility in adverse weather conditions on open sections of the line.

I saw this done last winter on a 92TS It confused a number of people who were standing waiting patiently for the doors to open.

(Why is it when you know the doors are going to open do people insist on pressing the damn buttons, the doors then open by co-incidence and then they barge out. I often feel like saying pressing the buttons made no difference.)

I think it is a good idea, though i also believe that it should be advertised by the SA's when Selective door opening occurs.

I do remember reading that it was stopped as it was causeing the sytem to overheat as it was not moving as much air about.