Selective door opening

Only one door open per carriage was very common in the early days of the D stock. It is a great pity it is not used now as they get very cold while standing at Upminster - also at other termini I am sure. Nothing like the arctic wind that blows through the carriages at this time of year (and weather) at Barking with all 8 doors open!!

The external handrail that was removed because idiots used to hold on to them as the train departed platforms?!!...... ......

Anyway, back to the subject in hand; selective close is used extremely frequently early in the morning and late at night on the District.

Whilst it may be appreciated during the day time at termini, the cleaners also have a job to do and it'd be much much harder for them to do it with only one door open per car - impossible if we depart the station and they haven't had the opportunity to get off first! ;D ;D ;D Yes I have seen the odd cleaner use the inter car doors, but they should not be doing so - it's not a standard practice and they are not encouraged to clean trains in this way.

Barking? Drivers don't necessarily know if they will be held - if I had a pound for every time I've set the selective close up, and whilst halfway through doing so the starter's gone green......

If I know I will be held at pretty much any open section station, I'll use selective close quite happily - but if I'm expecting the starter to go green at any moment, I'm not all that likely to bother.

Cleaners? Why should my car be cold because of some private company that's screwing money out of TFL and no doubt playing the minimum wage (or less).

Also I know why the external handrail was removed, but what sort of idiot placed them on doors that didn't line up with the selective close option?

Providing all doors are re-opened prior to departure there's no increased risk of trapping the cleaners on board!

I've used it several times in the past few weeks at termini and sometimes when I've arrived early at a regulating point. Although I find passengers often sit in the vicinity of the one remaining open door, rather than moving down the car to feel the benefit!

Trains should be cleaned in depots, see-through litter bins with slots wide enough for papers should be put on stations, free newspaper distribution should be banned. Ironically LRT kick-started the free newspaper phenomenon by allowing the 'Metro' to be given out on stations (prior to this, regular T/C entries would state that free magazines were not allowed to be given out on stations as they "cause litter" and create a "fire risk" [presumably the Metro is printed on fire-proof paper?], these paragraphs then disappeared).

At least a train cab has background heaters which can be left on and a fan activated when the cab is operational, many D (and C) Stock cars seem to have no functional car heaters at all.

It would have been nice had local management taken on board the company "behaviours" banged-on about in "Valuing Time" and reinstated Passenger Door Control during this coldest weather for nearly 20 years. In this case, regular PA messages on stations reminding passengers of this change would actually be of use. Not much use on the Surface Stock lines of course!

Ahh, you have clearly been well trained Seth ;D ;D ;D

Anyone present on my train will frequently experience Selective Door Close operation. I use it consistently in cold weather or indeed wet weather. I use it at terminal stations, open air running stations if I'm expecting a moderate delay at a red signal (or any open air red starter if it's really cold) and I use it at Barking Platform 1/2 to stop a gale removing the pathetically low heat output of D stock saloons. (Which incidentally is not a fault of D stock, it's because the depot's have turned the thermostats down, odd cars can still be found toasty warm on a train of otherwise cold cars).

The matter of cleaners on trains does not detract from instructions on the use of selective door close, however I have had them complain to me about setting it up as they have to double walk each car (or use the comms doors) whilst I do feel sorry for them, at the end of the day I too take the view my passengers should not freeze in consequence. As it happens they seem quite happy to completely ignore any cleaning activity on my train when it suits them (or to demand to know if it had been cleaned at the other end of the line).

I always reopen all the doors (at a terminus only) when ready to depart make the announcement and then close them all.

The issue of some D stock cars being unheated (due to depots removing fuses in the summer rather than repair faulty thermostats) is known at senior levels and Metronet performance on this under scrutiny.

Why have all the passenger (sorry customer) operated door buttons been disabled ? I know they have been like that for years, but this thread just reminded me that passengers had to press a button to open doors from outside and inside. That's whathappens sur le continent.

That's what happened: in Paris metro, the new stock (MP89) used with ATO on line 14 and (until now) with a driver on line 1, have doors which open automatically at every station.

The C2Cs, at Barking and Upminster across the platform from the D stocks, have passenger operated doors and not only can customers operate them without any trouble, even 70+ folk like me, but they seem to be trouble free too.

PDO is a thorney issue with everyone involved in trains, be it maintainence staff, drivers, line controllers, bean counters, etc. Everyone has their own unique vendetta against it; whilst it may seem a good idea in principal, in practice its said not to be. Its been discussed on here many a heated time. Though, as a passenger in the winter, I can't really see the downsides...

Are thermostats in the ceiling panels a wise idea? Afterall, heat rises...seems like a fail.

It makes me laugh when the punters still try and press the door open buttons on D Stocks.... even though it is bloody gone ! Idiots !!

Not just on the District, but I've seen it a lot on the Central. Especially when the t/op is slightly tardy in opening the doors. When it took about a minute before the doors were opened at Leytonstone westbound on one occasion one of the buttons took a real hammering from one impatient chap in a suit!

At least it wasn't the nearly 5 minutes I had to wait to exit a HST at Swansea few days ago when the doors refused to unlock, despite having worked perfectly at every other station from Newport (and presumably from Paddington as well)

They could just have a simple rule: open doors yourself at overground stations. Stick it over the windows at eye level to make it crystal clear. If people don't understand that then it's their own fault.

Overground stations don't have particularly long dwell times as it is, with a few exceptions where the driver could easily open them at his/her discretion.