On Fri, 4 Apr 2008, Tristan Miller wrote:

In article , James Farrar
wrote:

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

On Thu, 3 Apr 2008, Tristan Miller wrote:

What is the purpose of the "open" buttons on the doors of the London
Underground carriages? On every Underground train I've used, the doors
open automatically at every station. Is/was there a time or place
where they don't open automatically and the buttons must be used?

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.

Neither of these explanations seems particularly satisfying. I've used
plenty of public transport systems in Europe where it was necessary to
push a button (or even pull a handle!) to open the carriage door. Surely
if continental types can learn to push a button, then so can Londoners.

Do you have to use the open button at all stations, or are there some
stations where the driver opens all the doors automatically?

If not, then these systems are using the same principle as NR trains here,
which Londoners do seem to manage to use without too much difficulty.

If they do, then it does seem that continentals are cleverer than
Londoners. This is where the problem arose here - in some stations, the
driver would open the doors, so there was no point pushing the buttons. In
some, he wouldn't, so passengers would have to push the button. This is
where confusion sets in, because if the door in front of you isn't open,
you can never be sure if it's the driver being tardy opening it, in which
case you should wait, or a station where he's not going to, in which case
you should push the button. This is where the little light on the button
comes in - it means "you need to push me to open the door", but this was
perhaps not clear enough for the tired commuting brain to reliably handle.

tom

--
BUTTS LOL