Richard J. wrote:
Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Dave Liney wrote:

The Central Line 1992 stock did have close buttons, and probably
still does. Though I'm not sure they did anything having only used
the Central Line in the central, tunnelled, section where they
didn't need to be used.

I remember posters in about the mid 1990s trumpetting this feature,
claiming that it gave passengers the chance to shut out rainy
weather at surface stops. They seem to have since abandoned caring
about this.

I remember reading here some time ago about incidents where a Central
Line passenger had pressed the door close button, not realising that he
was being followed by another passenger who was struck by the closing
door. Health & Safety considerations then led to the Close facility
being withdrawn. I'm not sure why passenger-operated door opening has
also been withdrawn on the Tube when it's still in operation on DLR.

On National Rail, some of the latest stock like Class 450 on SWT have
passenger-openable doors which individually close (following the usual
warning bleeps) after a certain time has elapsed, about 30 seconds I
think. This is very useful at a terminus where otherwise the doors
could be open for a long time.


I'm not sure about that. At a terminus, boarding a train at leisure
which is not due to depart for five minutes, surrounded by all kinds of
noise and bleeping from adjacent trains, I have repeatedly had the
doors close on me with no effective warning just as I am getting on.

I don't think that's healthy and safe. Also, the amount of delay seems
to be randomised, because doors which have all been opened at roughly
the same time as the train first arrived close at very different times.

Back to the first point, the safety issue explains why close buttons
are not used (yet they are still used on NR), but doesn't explain why
the majority of Underground stock, which has open but not close
buttons, doesn't use them. Unless it's to save confusion, but they've
never cared about that before.