Open Door Buttons On London Underground Trains?
A double question:
Can someone explain why there are a) open door buttons on many London Underground trains (like the Jubilee Line) which have absolutely no purpose, and b), why people insist on pressing them, despite the fact the doors open automatically?
a) When trains with open door buttons were first introduced, you really did have to press the button to open the door. They had their use on the overground sections of the lines in the middle of winter: the doors didn’t have to open and let in a blast of freezing air unless someone actually wanted to get on or off. But nowadays the drivers always open all the doors, whatever the weather, maybe because some people proved too dumb to use the buttons in the past, or maybe having the doors open automatically knocks a split second off journey times.
b) Nowadays, some other people are too dumb to have realised that all the doors are going to open anyway. They’re probably the same people who think that pressing a lift button lots and lots of times will make the lift arrive faster.
They are on the subways in Paris also. There you really do have to push them.
ermm, actually, sometimes its necessary to press the button. for instance, i live in hammersmith and s0me people find that it takes s0o long for the doors to open, so they press it.
SIGH* people are always in a rush to get out.
theres nothing wrong with pressing the open button, issit?
Not so.
At open air stations, on the outer sections of the system, where passenger numbers are lower, the doors do not open automatically. Although the train operator activates the release mechanism, it is up to individual passengers to open/shut each door. This reduces power consumption and retain heating levels in each carraige.