On Apr 3, 9:50*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
"James Farrar" wrote in message

...

On Thu, 3 Apr 2008 21:15:19 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

Yes - the past. It used to be the case, AIUI, that the driver didn't open
all the doors when the train stopped at a station on the surface, at least
if it was cold and/or wet and not too busy. Then, you'd have to push the
button to open the door. However, this seems to have been too confusing
for passengers, and now all doors always open all the time (except when
they don't).
I have heard two possible explanations: one (as you stated) being that
passengers were confused; the other being that there were fears of
passengers using close-door buttons to close the doors on other
passengers.

I have heard that the delay caused while pax (both on the train and
platform) realised that they had to open the doors themselves made it
impossible to keep to the timetable...


It was several years before operators on the Central Line learned how
to release the doors less than 30 seconds after the train had arrived
at a station.

Passengers who had already tried pressing the "open" buttons and found
them to do nothing, quite reasonably didn't notice when they were
eventually unlocked, adding yet more delay.

The same situation now exists on SWT 450s where passengers press the
button and nothing happens. Then the guard eventually releases then
and somebody eventually notices that the light is on and then presses
the button again. Still nothing happens, because the 450 doors are so
incredibly slow, so they press again and again while the doors are
opening.

For some reason the guards don't have the same problem in the 455s.