Not insurmountable, but still a mountain to climb. As a result, many industries stick to tried-and-tested methods in preference to getting new techniques passed by the RSSB and the like, especially when the gains are arguably small.
That'd give much the same benefit for little added complication. No (questionable) radio links between the human being and the door controls, and the guard could fall back to using the door buzzer if needed.
Personally i much prefer the traditional method where the Guard both opens the doors and closes the doors and the driver has nothing to do with the doors (like what currently happens on all LNWR / Northern Rail / SWR / TFW / WMR services) as i think this is a lot safer. I have seen data released via FOI requests and it shows that wrong side door releases (where the doors are released on the wrong side) and off platform door releases (where the train stops in the wrong position and some carriages which are not on the platform get released) are much more common on trains where the Driver releases the doors. On trains where the Guard releases the doors this is much rarer. This is because the Guard firstly just opens their local door and steps on to the platform and looks both way along the length of the train to make sure everything is safe before then pressing the buttons to release all of the other doors. So i think it is much safer to keep the Guard in charge of both opening the doors and closing the doors.
That is good to hear the 197s do. At least they got that right. Hopefully the 231s and 398s and 756s have them too.
My best guess is it will be 2024 when the 777s finally enter service.
Well it really depends what you consider to be a Metro service. Whether or not Merseyrail is a metro service or a suburban train service can be debated. The vast majority of metro services around the world are DOO. I believe most lines of the New York Subway / New York PATH Train / Boston Subway / Toronto Subway are all still run with a Guard both opening the doors and closing the doors. Also both the Sydney Australia suburban trains and Wellington New Zealand suburban trains which both run to metro like frequencies on some sections both operate to this method too and have a Guard both opening the doors and closing the doors. So there are some other systems. Just because it is not that common elsewhere it does not mean we should not keep this method. If the Guard having the full control of opening the doors and closing the doors is the safest method than that is what should be kept. I am not a fan of Driver release. It is just not safe enough. Like i said in my previous post there are statistics to show that Driver release trains causes more wrong side door releases and off platform door releases than on Guard release trains. I think the Guard opening their local door only and checking the platform before then opening all of the other doors is the safest method and that is what should ideally be used on all trains.
I understand the sentiment - but Formby is perhaps a bad example, as the main issue there was staff assault, which will surely become less frequent with fewer customer-facing staff members.
Yes it would instead being passengers being assaulted at unmanned stations, if I use night trains I've always got on or off at manned Stations.
Oh yes, I'm certainly not suggesting that staff assaults are a reason to remove staff or that removing staff would stop violence on stations - I'm just pointing out that what happened at Formby wasn't caused by staff not being present.
Was the incident at Formby on a train, or just on the station between trains? If the latter, the presence or absence of a guard is irrelevant.
From the video obtained by the press, the incident appears to have taken place on the platform and stairs leading to the booking office. There is no train shown, though the occurrence may have started on one which had by then departed.
92.8% availability puts many newer classes to shame.
Guards on SBB despatch with a mobile app? How on earth does that work? Is the mobile app connected via bluetooth or wifi or 2G/3G/4G/5G signal? How does it know which is the local door? So does the app have door control buttons and a bell button? Also i thought SBB trains were DOO so which ones still have Guards on them?
So how do they preheat before going in to service? or is this storage pre service.? Down south we needed the electrical supplies to depots enhanced before the 377s were introduced to meet the demands of ac and heating on the new stock.
That’s an interesting point. I don’t know the answer. A shore supply from a cable? Unless the batteries can supply sufficient power to work the aircon for a short period but still retain enough to allow the units to move off non-electrified sidings.
Unelectrified sidings? Switzerland?
www.merseyrail.org
777015 called at Hall Road at about 12.20 today, heading for Southport. As it is one of the last three to be delivered, that suggests that all the previous arrivals have completed the required mileage on test and been accepted by Merseytravel.
It was also out on Monday and Tuesday. These have been the first test runs in 3 weeks since they have been having a bit of bad luck with 777013 which has been unable to leave Kirkdale depot. I’m sure if it was renumbered 777054 then it would work immediately!
Has 777007 and 777009 completed their fault-free running yet?
Some still have guards for sure, I went on some Tilo (sbb& trenord) services on Tuesday and they had a guard watching the doors. Not sure whether they did it themselves or whether they communicated with the driver to close them.
The 750-799 grouping was meant to be used for hybrid/multi-mode units, or those capable of being hybrid with minimal work in the future. The 777s can be 3rd rail and battery or 3rd rail and 25kv AC so they fit that definition. Indeed some are being delivered as Battery Electric Multiple Units (BEMUs), so it’s not even theoretical.
Not to do with that, the 777s got their designation before it was decided that 750-799 was for multi mode units.
