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And then, of course, you get The total ****-for-brains passengers who
decide they're not going to make the closing doors in person but will
swing their bag/umbrella etc. in the doors. This happens a lot. One time,
having watched somebody do just this, the doors closed after a few seconds
delay with the passenger still on the platform waving. Off I went. Turns
out that somebody in the car had pulled the bag into the car, thus
separating passenger from bag!

One of the benefits of recorded CCTV is that there can be a replay when a
passenger complains that he was "trapped in the doors". Sometimes it has
turned out that the passenger was nowhere near the train. usually
it is proved that the doors were already closing before the person
was near them. Judging by the antics of some passengers, such as standing
idly on the platform then making a sudden dash for the closing doors, it
appears that their hoping to have an incident where they can claim
compensation from LU.


When I was a member of that much lamented breed, a guard, we were westbound
through Hyde Park Corner (platform access at the extreme rear of the train
and guard's position in the back cab) one evening peak when some jerk dashed
on the platform and swung a large (half gallon) can of paint into the
almost closed doors.

He then looked at me with a silly smirk as if to say "Well, you're going to
have to open them again now aren't you?"

I went up to him, grabbed the handle and tugged but it came away so I got
hold of the tin itself and pulled. As I gave it to him I remarked that he
shouldn't have put it in in the first place, got back in the can and gave
the driver the signal to start.

The silly smirk had disappeared from his face and had been replaced by one
much more satisfying, well to me at least.

Why didn't I simply re-open the doors? Firstly because of the attitude that
the silly smirk betrayed and secondly because there were other people
directly behind him with more approaching I could have been there all night.

There was an apocryphal tale of a guard who got a bollocking for failing to
reopen the doors for someone who came dashing onto the platform at the last
moment. Apparently he took the manager's advice to heart and allowed those
who wished to to get on the train. Allegedly he was at Green Park during one
evening peak for some twenty minutes.