I have to say I’d dispute that, it worked pretty well on the HST fleets for a couple of decades or so! It had it’s weaknesses in terms of the potential for door on the catch incidents admittedly, but as a compromise for the tiny proportion of overall journeys made by charter rolling stock it would seem to be a reasonable compromise I would think?
Incidentally, I observed a train of predominantly MK1 stock in Worcester a few weeks back, with BIL / hazard lights fitted to the coach exteriors, so I presume someone has already fitted CDL to theirs?
It's never been particularly reliable and is prone to air leaks, dicky solenoids and these things are always more problematic on charter stock that often isn't used day in day out. If you have power problems to the coach for whatever reason you lose your CDL in addition.
It's useless for short platforms unless you have an upgraded version which is still very much reliant on someone being in the right place in the train and turning a key - but on trains without driver/guard comms you then lose access to the brake van and the ability to stop the train if need be - communication becomes reliant on radios, you can't just drop the brake.
The bodyside light system on them has always been very misleading and prone to generating mistakes, particularly compared to modern stock.
I much prefer a more modern electro magnet solution.
The problem with depending on a stewarding system is that the stewards are human beings and are therefore, like all of us, subject to mistakes and distractions. I have to say I am surprised, given how long CDL has been around, that stock is still running on the main line with no other safeguard than a person stationed by each door.
That's no different to CDL. It's a dumb system and has no idea whether the guard is releasing the doors correctly or not. Unless you have automatic selective door opening it's always going have human error as a factor.
At least with a steward they can look before they leap in terms of releasing their door locks and opening the doors.
The optimal solution would appear to be CDL plus a steward - WCRC's point is, I *think*, that if they have a train with stewards on each door which seems to work OK, why should they be required to pay to fit additional systems to their trains at their own expense?
