On Jul 29, 7:27*pm, "Chris Read" wrote:
"Paul Corfield" wrote:
Interesting that the guard has to travel in the train carriage, DLR
style, as the door release and door close buttons are by the doors
themselves.

Is it 'has to' or 'instructed to' I wonder? Generally, conductors on
Southern 377s work within the carriage, but I believe it is operationally
possible to work from the rear (or intermediate) cab, and I'm pretty sure
I've been on a few services (generally late night departures from Brighton)
where this has happened.

Also, are the guards actually releasing the doors? Just interested, as I
thought on most modern build units the driver did the releasing, and the
guard/conductor the closing.


Conductors certainly both open and close the doors on both London
Midland and on Southern services on the West Coast Mainline. On LM
services this is the reason for the delay between the train stopping
and the doors opening, as the conductor has to open the door where
they are and check the position and length of the train in relation to
the platform before opening the rest of the doors. For LM, where
selective door opening is used, only doors ahead of the conductor will
open. You can see this on the early morning services which call at
Wembley Central; e.g. the 8 car train on the 04.35 Milton Keynes -
Euston on Saturdays has an advertised stop here (in the on-line
journey planner, but not in the printed timetable) and only the front
4 coaches' doors open, with the conductor in the front cab of the rear
unit.