Contrasting door colours on rail vehicles

[OneOffDave]

Serious question, Would the chime and the flashing door button have been enough? (as is now appearing on all sliding door stock?).

No, as the button is frequently hidden by other people, given it's height on the side of the train. The chime isn't of a broad enough frequency range to assist with good location and given they all go off on the train at once it can be hard determining direction.

Nearly every station I can think of has high contrast nosings on the stairs and any new build or improvements must comply with part M of the building regulations that cover this issue. The train-platform gap often isn't too bad as the edge of the platform is marked as is the edge of the train step.

 

[Wolfie]

One of my biggest bugbears. Liveries now suffer because of this "legislation", and stripes no longer work if they are broken up by different coloured doors etc.

I would harshly say that it helps a very small minority of people, and should those people be unassisted on a dangerous station platform anyway, with many obstacles including a four foot drop onto the track?

I just think its overkill.

I would harshly say that you are really not a very nice person. What you are saying is that your preference over aesthetics is more important than something which is potentially of major assistance to a visually impaired person - shameful!

Lovely. 'How dare those people ruin my nice pretty train by having the nerve to want to live an independent life'.

I'm surprised you don't say that they should be in a home where they don't get in everyone's way. [emoji35]

Spot on - will eugenics be the next call?

If it makes taking the train easier for a "small minority" then it's worthwhile doing. The aesthetic qualities of a livery are irrelevant in comparison.

Absolutely.

My ex was visually impaired and could see things like the edge of the platform, bins and that kind of thing but the contrast for the doors made it much easier for her to find them

My late father was the same.

 

[trash80]

OK well that escalated . Of course accessibility is the most important consideration but if we're going down the aesthetics route...

As someone who has worked in design for 20 odd years i find features yellow ends and different colour doors enhance the livery of rolling stock as it adds "punctuation" to the design. So basically everyone wins.

 

[Harbornite]

I do wonder if WSMR and Chiltern ever received many complaints from visually impaired passengers due to their use of BR blue and grey liveried stock for a number of years

Yet Chiltern had a set in, er, BR Intercity blue and yellow - a set that was painted those colours well after contrasting doors were well established. Has a change in the rules now removed any grandfather rights for old liveries?

Chiltern inherited these from Wrexham and Shropshire, who in turn inherited them from the failed railtour stock owner Cargo D. WSMR or Chiltern did not apply the livery themselves and would probably not be allowed to. We could see a full BR liveried HST set once one is withdrawn and preserved.
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I'm surprised you don't say that they should be in a home where they don't get in everyone's way. [emoji35]

Bit OT, but emojis don't work on the forum. Just use smilies if you must, such as this:

:roll:

 

[najaB]

Bit OT, but emojis don't work on the forum. Just use smilies if you must, such as this:

:roll:

And, paradoxically, smilies don't work in Tapatalk. Catch 22. [emoji2]

 

[physics34]

I would harshly say that you are really not a very nice person. What you are saying is that your preference over aesthetics is more important than something which is potentially of major assistance to a visually impaired person - shameful!

.

Well you cant really judge people just by sound bites on a forum.

Read my post after that and you might slightly get the jist of what i am on about, I dont expect many people to agree with me...........

I question why for decades and decades this was never required.

There are more important things and dangers at stations that need to be improved for people with vision problems. I just think this is overkill.
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In the early days of the front entrance double decker in London the DMS and other types had yellow entrance doors while the centre exit doors remained red.

because people went to the back of the bus for the door cos they were so used to Routemasters and RTs

 

[Harbornite]

And, paradoxically, smilies don't work in Tapatalk. Catch 22. [emoji2]

Oh damn!

 

[physics34]

I wonder... would it satisfy the rules to have a row of LEDS fitted around the doorway which would light up only when the door is cut in?

I considered that idea myself.

 

[najaB]

I considered that idea myself.

Something that would need to be considered how that would impact on painting/wrapping the stock. LEDs don't last forever so their replacement would need to be considered as well.

 

[fgwrich]

One question I have - we have to have a contrasting colour for the external doors, but does it have to include the inside of rolling stock as well?

I'm asking as, the FGW Refurbishments have both internal and external sides of the doors in Rubine Red (Pink) along with the handrails as well. Side the 'GWR' refurbishment has come along, the Sprinters have all have the insides of the doors painted the same shade of grey as the interior panels. The hand rails have gone a rather uninteresting dark grey.

 

[physics34]

Had NSE, Regional Railways and Intercity (Swallow/Executive) liveries lasted long enough to be covered by the regs, what colour would each likely have had the doors?

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7005/6824209971_7a4f96375c_b.jpg

you would say that this would look odd with all its doors painted........say...yellow!
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Something that would need to be considered how that would impact on painting/wrapping the stock. LEDs don't last forever so their replacement would need to be considered as well.

just stripes of them bolted on i suppose......
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Something that would need to be considered how that would impact on painting/wrapping the stock. LEDs don't last forever so their replacement would need to be considered as well.

just stripes of them bolted on i suppose......

 

[tbtc]

Well you cant really judge people just by sound bites on a forum.

Read my post after that and you might slightly get the jist of what i am on about, I dont expect many people to agree with me...........

I question why for decades and decades this was never required

You might as well question why for decades and decades universal toilets weren't required/ step free footbridges weren't required/ wheelchair accessible buses weren't required...

...you're essentially asking why we bother trying to improve something and make it more accessible?

Enthusiasts... they talk about how vitally important heavy rail is as a public service, yet woe betide anyone whose requirements mean making small adjustments to access it!

If you are worrying that your pwetty livery is "suffering" because of contrasting doors then there's probably little point trying to understand the situation from people with greater needs than you.

It's not a black/white issue. Not everyone needs a wheelchair, but a lot of people need a little assistance.

(and even if we ignore those with imperfect eyesight for a moment... consider the need to speed up platform dwell times... we seem to spend tens of millions of pounds on tinkering with junctions/ alignments to save two minutes from a journey... so something that makes doors more obvious as a train pulls into a station could be the difference between passengers neatly congregating around the doors and passengers not knowing where to stand at the platform... if it makes things faster then surely it's A Good Thing?)

 

[Strathclyder]

Although, didn't BR try and get away with just painting the end corridor door of a DMU yellow and leaving the rest of the front white, and they were told it didn't count?

There's a pic of a Regional Railways 150/2 floating about somewhere where just the end corridor door was yellow, but the rest of the cab was white. See if I can find it...
http://www.hondawanderer.com/150218_Beeston_Castle_1987.htm

 

[Domh245]

There's a pic of a Regional Railways 150/2 floating about somewhere where just the end corridor door was yellow, but the rest of the cab was white. See if I can find it...
http://www.hondawanderer.com/150218_Beeston_Castle_1987.htm

Perhaps it's because all I've ever known is a full yellow end on a 150, but that's hideous!

 

[Strathclyder]

Perhaps it's because all I've ever known is a full yellow end on a 150, but that's hideous!

Yeah, just doesn't sit well at all, does it?

 

[Via Bank]

Well you cant really judge people just by sound bites on a forum.

Read my post after that and you might slightly get the jist of what i am on about, I dont expect many people to agree with me...........

I question why for decades and decades this was never required.

There are more important things and dangers at stations that need to be improved for people with vision problems. I just think this is overkill.

For centuries and centuries anaesthetics were never required, and so I question why they are suddenly required now. Plenty of people survived operations before anaesthetics, and besides, anaesthetics make you groggy for days afterwards, and sometimes people die under anaesthetic.

And besides, there are more important risks to hospital patients, like blood loss and MRSA. I just think anaesthetics are overkill. QED.


This is what you sound like. It is ridiculous. That is the intended effect.

There is no disadvantage whatsoever to able-bodied passengers in requiring contrasting colours for train doors, and it makes it significantly easier for partially-sighted people to get on the train and give the Railway their custom.

 

[Rail Blues]

I wonder... would it satisfy the rules to have a row of LEDS fitted around the doorway which would light up only when the door is cut in?

I've no idea, but why try to engineer a complex solution when there's a low cost, zero maintenance alternative of painting the door a contrasting colour?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I've no idea, but why try to engineer a complex solution when there's a low cost, zero maintenance alternative of painting the door a contrasting colour?

Because that's what we do on this forum?