Doors failed to open

[Roger Feltham]

I was travelling on 2S45 from Queenstown Road to Feltham today, a 10 car 458 and the doors failed to open in coach 8 and possibly the whole of the back set at Feltham; they had opened in Hounslow.

Passengers were also trying to board pushing the button and waiting at the train doors but they didn't open. The guard then signalled the train off.

Fortunately the doors did open at Ashford. The guard was in the front set and there is no way for passengers to change sets on a 458 on SWR.

How should you communicate with the driver or guard in this situation?

 

[Snow1964]

I think if there were no announcements about selected door opening, and multiple doors had failed to open then if you want to get off, pulling the emergency handle is reasonable

But by the sound of it, this particular guard is doing his best to justify driver only operation if he cannot spot passengers trying to get on

 

[43096]

I think if there were no announcements about selected door opening, and multiple doors had failed to open then if you want to get off, pulling the emergency handle is reasonable

But by the sound of it, this particular guard is doing his best to justify driver only operation if he cannot spot passengers trying to get on

It's been a known issue with the ASDO system on the 458s since it was fitted. It's a lot better than it was, but there are still occasional glitches where an individual vehicle fails to read the balise and so doesn't release the doors on that vehicle. Personally, in the scenario as described by the OP, I'd be putting a delay repay claim in for the additional journey time of going to Ashford and back.

 

[yorkie]

I think if there were no announcements about selected door opening, and multiple doors had failed to open then if you want to get off, pulling the emergency handle is reasonable

But by the sound of it, this particular guard is doing his best to justify driver only operation if he cannot spot passengers trying to get on

Some Guards on SWR are like this; I remember being on a 12 car train arriving into Clapham Jn and the short platform was not announced with sufficient notice (or wasn't announced at all, I can't remember now) and passengers who had moved forward were still in the process of alighting when the Guard attempted to close the doors. Passengers used the emergency door release on the rearmost door which had opened, which allowed all the passengers who had moved forward to alight.

 

[Roger Feltham]

This is not a short platform all of the doors should have opened

 

[yorkie]

Indeed.

But having failed to open, the train shouldn't simply depart regardless.

 

[Roger Feltham]

Pulling the red lever would delay the train

 

[Huntergreed]

Pulling the red lever would delay the train

But NOT pulling the red lever would substantially delay a number of passengers who wanted to alight there.

I would say using it in this scenario to highlight to a staff member that there was a problem would be entirely justified.

 

[swt_passenger]

This is not a short platform all of the doors should have opened

Each individual carriage of a 458/5 train makes its own SDO open decision, if the reader on the carriage fails to read the beacon on entering the platform those doors won’t open. I had the same problem quite a few occur years ago, a carriage half way along a unit failed to open at a full length platform, fortunately I was trying to get on, so the guard could see the problem a few of us were having.

 

[TEW]

I believe it's not unknown for the doors not to open on 458/5 coaches but for the external hazard lights to illuminate still, if that was the case it can be hard for the guard to realise there is a problem.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The guard once released the doors at Aldershot, and no doors in the front carriage were released. We were all carried onto Farnham and when made aware the guard apologised over the PA and then instructed the passing service at Farnham to wait so we could re-board.