In message , Mark Brader
writes
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.

Maybe once they were going to do that, they should have given them
two-speed motors. After 30 seconds the door could close in leisurely
fashion, taking maybe 8-10 seconds to slide across; but on the guard's
command all doors not yet fully closed would close in the normal
manner. A two-speed flashing light would provide suitable warning.

I too believe that the 450, 444 and similar trains should have a way of
clearly indicating whether the doors are closing under the guard's
command or auto-closing. Otherwise, even when the doors are
auto-closing, people have a tendency to throw themselves through the
doors when they hear the beeps, fearing the train is going to depart.
I believe the 166s provide the distinction by not beeping when
auto-closing (probably not allowed these days).
--
Daniel (a.k.a Spyke)
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Spyke wrote:

I too believe that the 450, 444 and similar trains should have a way of
clearly indicating whether the doors are closing under the guard's
command or auto-closing. Otherwise, even when the doors are
auto-closing, people have a tendency to throw themselves through the
doors when they hear the beeps, fearing the train is going to depart.
I believe the 166s provide the distinction by not beeping when
auto-closing (probably not allowed these days).

Chiltern appeared to have that one sorted for a while in that guards
would blow a whistle before pressing "close" (assuming there were no
platform staff to do this). This only, for obvious reasons, happened
on the section with guards! This seems to have disappeared again,
however.

Works in Germany, and costs less than a quid per guard...

Neil