"Basil Jet" wrote in message
...
There's a fundamental difference between waiting for passengers on a tube
line that is close to theoretical maximum headway and waiting for
passengers on the half-hourly train to Bayford.

I was once waiting on the platform for a train, along with a lot of other
people - probably a bit more than normal. The train was a couple of minutes
late. It stopped, opened its doors, let a few people on and then closed them
after about 10 seconds and set off. There was plenty of space inside the
train, so it looks as if the driver/guard thought "I'm late so I'm only
going to make a token gesture of stopping but not long enough for everyone
to get on". Passengers weren't running to catch the train: they were already
on the platform and queuing at each train door when the doors were
unceremoniously closed.

What is the normal advice when a train is running late and there are a lot
of passengers to get on but also a lot of space on the train? Is it normal
for doors to be closed after a token time, even though there are more
passengers still waiting to get on and space to accommodate them?

The next train (half an hour later) was very full, but the train waited for
long enough to get as many people on as possible, only closing the doors
when there was no more standing room. Some people were delayed by an hour:
they didn't get on the first train because it set off after only a few
seconds, and they didn't get on the second train because there wasn't enough
space.