"Doors will open on the left hand side" - whose left?

[edwin_m]

To revive this thread, because it seems like the obvious place to go rather than starting a new one, I was on a Docklands Light Railway train into Tower Gateway station the other day. (For those unfamiliar with the station, it is a single track reversing line at a dead-end terminus. The are platforms on both sides of the train with one side intended for arriving and alighting passengers and the other side intended for passengers waiting for a departing service. The design is to maximise efficiency of movement and minimise conflicts.)
As the train pulled in the Train Captain gave a very clear announcement informing of ‘all change’, explicitly stating that passengers should alight on the right hand side in the direction of travel.
Yes, you’ve guessed, the majority of passengers alighted on the left, barging through the assembled crowd!

With crowds, not any faster. With no crowds, faster by a few seconds.

Exit is on the left hand side (left if you're facing the buffers that is) but leaving on the right is only a few seconds longer around the buffers

The "departure" platform has access at both ends but the arrival platform doesn't.

 

[Dr Hoo]

The "departure" platform has access at both ends but the arrival platform doesn't.

That is a fair point but a much smaller proportion of passengers appear to use that access. All of the passengers that alighted from the ‘wrong’ side on my trip appeared to move forward to the main exit.

 

[172007]

To revive this thread, because it seems like the obvious place to go rather than starting a new one, I was on a Docklands Light Railway train into Tower Gateway station the other day. (For those unfamiliar with the station, it is a single track reversing line at a dead-end terminus. The are platforms on both sides of the train with one side intended for arriving and alighting passengers and the other side intended for passengers waiting for a departing service. The design is to maximise efficiency of movement and minimise conflicts.)
As the train pulled in the Train Captain gave a very clear announcement informing of ‘all change’, explicitly stating that passengers should alight on the right hand side in the direction of travel.
Yes, you’ve guessed, the majority of passengers alighted on the left, barging through the assembled crowd!

I immagine its simple human factors at play. The kerbside on uk roads is the left. We get off buses and the passenger seat of a car to the ledt, in fact i can not think of a commercial aircraft where you dont exit on the left.

People in this country will automatically alight to the left even if they have heard an announcement. It is simply a preprogrammed subconcius action i suspect.

 

[Starmill]

That is a fair point but a much smaller proportion of passengers appear to use that access. All of the passengers that alighted from the ‘wrong’ side on my trip appeared to move forward to the main exit.

A lot of people probably don't even know that entrance is even there. I certainly didn't until I recently arrived at Tower Gateway through the main entrance and had a short wait before a train arrived. It's very easy to miss.

 

[The exile]

I immagine its simple human factors at play. The kerbside on uk roads is the left. We get off buses and the passenger seat of a car to the ledt, in fact i can not think of a commercial aircraft where you dont exit on the left.

People in this country will automatically alight to the left even if they have heard an announcement. It is simply a preprogrammed subconcius action i suspect.

The other one that comes into play is the assumption that “off” will be on the same side as “on”. Fine if your journey is between two stations on a simple 2 track line, but a risky assumption elsewhere.

 

[TUC]

Amazing that this thread is still running! Of course it means "...in the direction of travel". Any passengers who cannot work that out are likely to have difficulty with the more complex guidelines which have been suggested to "help" them get out of the train.


It's possible to over-complicate life with information only needed by those who may be insufficiently alert to understand it, just because there are systems which are capable of being programmed to provide it.

I think this issue is a classic example of where, if one tries to ensure every possible scenario raised by overthinkers are addressed, one ends up with instructions which are harder for the majority of people to readily understand. The guiding principle should be 'what would the vast majority of passengers interpret this statement as meaning?'

 

[styles]

I think this issue is a classic example of where, if one tries to ensure every possible scenario raised by overthinkers are addressed, one ends up with instructions which are harder for the majority of people to readily understand. The guiding principle should be 'what would the vast majority of passengers interpret this statement as meaning?'

It seems pretty easy to solve though in this example, right? "Doors will open on the left hand side in the direction of travel.", is probably as simple as can be made; and the display screens have an arrow pointing to which doors will open.

I feel like anything beyond that is overthinking it.

I am actually surprised we made 8 pages on this post though.

 

[edwin_m]

That is a fair point but a much smaller proportion of passengers appear to use that access. All of the passengers that alighted from the ‘wrong’ side on my trip appeared to move forward to the main exit.

I did a trip from Tower Gateway and back this morning. On entering via the eastern access I passed about 50 people who had just alighted from a train. It's also signed as a way out.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I did a trip from Tower Gateway and back this morning. On entering via the western access I passed about 50 people who had just alighted from a train. It's also signed as a way out.

Surely the ‘western access’ is the main access to or from the Tower side. I know that some Underground stations, including Tower Hill have separate entrances and exits but the DLR access serves both purposes, so obviously it’s signed as a way out (as well as in).

 

[edwin_m]

Surely the ‘western access’ is the main access to or from the Tower side. I know that some Underground stations, including Tower Hill have separate entrances and exits but the DLR access serves both purposes, so obviously it’s signed as a way out (as well as in).

Apologies, the post should have referred to the eastern access and I have now edited it. It only connects to the "departure" platform but clearly many people use it to exit the station after arriving.

 

[Taunton]

Surely the ‘western access’ is the main access to or from the Tower side. I know that some Underground stations, including Tower Hill have separate entrances and exits but the DLR access serves both purposes, so obviously it’s signed as a way out (as well as in).

It's indeed the exit I most use there, because of where I'm going. But it has a tedious multi-zig-zag staircase down, compared to the escalators at the other end. It's also more challenging to get across the roads towards Tower Bridge, so just serves a local purpose. However it is conflicting with the train announcements.

I did ask DLR if the intention was that you had to walk round the buffers and back up the other side to go out that way. The answer, which seemed quite sensible, was the north side platform was seen as a reliever rather than absolute passenger flow, the announcement encourages but doesn't insist. As long as a reasonable proportion go out that way it meets its objectives.

 

[Krokodil]

"Doors will open on the left hand side in the direction of travel.", is probably as simple as can be made

Too wordy. The Germans manage with "Ausstieg links" ("Exit left"). Do we really have to idiot-proof everything?

 

[TRAX]

Too wordy. The Germans manage with "Ausstieg links" ("Exit left"). Do we really have to idiot-proof everything?

Unfortunately it's the new world some people are working very hard to build...
Let's not forget that the more you nanny people, the more nannying they'll need.

 

[43096]

Too wordy. The Germans manage with "Ausstieg links" ("Exit left"). Do we really have to idiot-proof everything?

Actually, in a lot of German stock the announcement is “Ausstieg in fahrtrichtung links” which translates as “Exit left in the direction of travel”.

This thread has taken the “direction of travel” thing to a whole new level in inanity, though.

 

[Bikeman78]

TfW 197s do that, showing "door not in use" in red on both inside and outside buttons, until the guard releases them some seconds after the train stops. I don't know what they show if the door is actually broken. It's very confusing when you first encounter it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Jan 2026 ==


For the 197s, it means "door hasn't yet been released" although it may be released imminently.

All CAF trains seem to do it. It's confused me several times. I've seen other people darting between doors so it's clearly not just me. Now I stand by my chosen door and hope for the best.

 

[Hadlow Road]

All CAF trains seem to do it. It's confused me several times. I've seen other people darting between doors so it's clearly not just me. Now I stand by my chosen door and hope for the best.

And the big red cross and platform closed is, to me anyway, unnecessarily confusing at Euston. As Bikeman78 might ask: What would one do if the platform was closed, rather than simply not open for boarding? These door signs are actually unhelpful.

 

[83G/84D]

I travelled on a few TfW trains last week. On one journey from Llandudno to Deganwy the display stated that doors on the right would be opened. This was clearly not the case and doors on the left were opened. On a trip from Llandudno Jn to Bangor the station visual displays seemed to freeze and not update. Llandudno Jn was still displayed at Llanfairfechan and on the return from Bangor, Holyhead was still showing at Llandudno Jn. No audio announcements were heard.

 

[BeijingDave]

I always assumed within transportation that it means on the left ‘in the direction of travel’.

Yes, it does.

And it's a useful announcement on metro systems where you are in a tunnel and you don't know which side the platform will be on until you emerge.

It's no fun having to push back through a scrum on a carriage in a busy Asian city subway because you guessed at the wrong door.

(Some lines having a combination of side and island platforms)

But it does indeed have limited use on English railways where even the Chester-Warrington train (which I take fairly regularly) often unpredictably arrives at platform 3 (thus left side) rather than the expected platform 4 (right side door opening).