TRIVIA: Stations where a high proportion of doors remain closed due to Selective Door Opening

SECR 65 · 26 Jul 2026

The other day I caught a train to Cooksbridge (small station in Sussex). It was a triple 387 set so 12 coaches, and the PIS announced front 6 only. This means that 50% of the doors remained closed.

Are there any other examples where a similar or even higher proportion of doors remain closed due to short platforms and Selective Door Opening?

(Can be just one platform of many at a station, or one-off / rare trains (e.g. most trains through Cooksbridge are only 8 car) - criteria are pretty loose. Heritage lines fine, as are metros etc. UK only though please.)

RailUK Forums

TheWierdOne · 26 Jul 2026

Gilfach Fargoed station is sufficiently short that only one door of any train can be accommodated on the platform.

rapmastaj · 26 Jul 2026

Only a single door opens at Avoncliff

Magdalia · 26 Jul 2026

The GN has various stations served mostly by 8 car trains but where some or all platforms are only 4 cars long.

Meldreth
Shepreth up platform
Foxton up platform
Littleport up platform
Watlington

LittleRedTrain · 26 Jul 2026

Bentley (Hants) certainly used to be 4 coaches opening only, despite having regular 12 car class 450 services calling, so 2/3 of the doors remained shut.
On Class 444 workings (up to 10 coaches), it was local door only, so 19/20 of the doors remained closed.

I think the SDO on these may have since been modified to allow more doors to open.

lxfe_mxtterz · 26 Jul 2026

LittleRedTrain said:
Bentley (Hants) certainly used to be 4 coaches opening only, despite having regular 12 car class 450 services calling, so 2/3 of the doors remained shut.
On Class 444 workings (up to 10 coaches), it was local door only, so 19/20 of the doors remained closed.

I think the SDO on these may have since been modified to allow more doors to open.

That is correct. With the SDO now being an automatic system (ASDO) using beacons as opposed to manual SDO, 6 coaches are able to be opened at Bentley on a 450. I haven't worked a 444 down there in a very long time so can't remember how many coaches open off the top of my head without checking the SDO manual.

kkong · 26 Jul 2026

There are several stations where ScotRail 2+5 HSTs only open a single door.

e.g. Broughty Ferry, Invergowrie

swt_passenger · 26 Jul 2026

LittleRedTrain said:
Bentley (Hants) certainly used to be 4 coaches opening only, despite having regular 12 car class 450 services calling, so 2/3 of the doors remained shut.
On Class 444 workings (up to 10 coaches), it was local door only, so 19/20 of the doors remained closed.

I think the SDO on these may have since been modified to allow more doors to open.

Yes, back when they used ‘whole unit deselect’ (UDS) there were a few 4 from 12 locations, a local example to me was Fareham P3. (Down side.) It was quite odd because an 8 car 450 was ok to open all its doors in that platform, but to open 8 of 12, the guard would need to be in the front cab of the rear unit - but as that was just off the end of the platform the guard couldn’t get out, so he had to operate the UDS controls from the front cab of the second unit.

Since that time the trains have individual carriage level SDO, and the platform signal has been moved slightly south too, so 8 from 12 works ok at Fareham.

IIRC when using UDS on a Portsmouth - Waterloo via Eastleigh the first call where the guard got a breather from running up and down the train between stations was at Eastleigh.

I think Portchester might have been local door only on 444s way back as well. I expect there were a few platforms too short for them in the more rural areas…

Mcr Warrior · 26 Jul 2026

Beauly station, located between Inverness and Dingwall, must be a contender. Ultra short platform (less than 50 feet in length), and unable to fully accommodate even the two car trains usually used on the Kyle of Lochalsh / Far North lines. Single door opening?

Kite159 · 26 Jul 2026

Mcr Warrior said:
Beauly station, located between Inverness and Dingwall, must be a contender. Ultra short platform (less than 50 feet in length), and unable to fully accommodate even the two car trains usually used on the Kyle of Lochalsh / Far North lines. Single door opening?

Generally those trains are single 2 coach 158s so 25%. High compared with a single door being open at the front of a train at Dilton Marsh or Avoncliff, especially on a Sunday when you get 5 coach trains calling (so 10%)

43010 · 26 Jul 2026

Only one door opens at Newton St Cyres

SuspectUsual · 26 Jul 2026

Mcr Warrior said:
Beauly station, located between Inverness and Dingwall, must be a contender. Ultra short platform (less than 50 feet in length)

That's the shortest platform on the mainline network isn't it?

ETMbloke · 26 Jul 2026

Shawford, in the Down direction, where only the doors in the front 3 coaches of a 10 coach 444 are released, springs to mind.

DaventryRabbit · 26 Jul 2026

Mcr Warrior said:
Beauly station, located between Inverness and Dingwall, must be a contender. Ultra short platform (less than 50 feet in length), and unable to fully accommodate even the two car trains usually used on the Kyle of Lochalsh / Far North lines. Single door opening?

Yes. As are many of the intermeadiate Far North and Kyle Line Stops

brad465 · 26 Jul 2026

Chilham and Chartham have some 12-car Charing X services in the peak that will be SDO for 4-car only.

VT 390 · 26 Jul 2026

Berny Arms is also a single door only station, so either 33% or 25% of doors depending if its a 3 or 4 carriage class 755.

As a proportion of total doors Ledbury on GWR services operated by 9 carriage class 800/class 802 as its the rear 3 carriages which means with the first class staff only kitchen area door being at the very back (usually) its only 5 doors out of 17.

py_megapixel · 26 Jul 2026

Stonehouse, until a few years ago, was served by 2+8 HSTs which could only open 2 carriages. There may have been other similar examples as well before the HSTs were replaced.

Mcr Warrior · 26 Jul 2026

Mcr Warrior said:
Beauly station, located between Inverness and Dingwall, must be a contender. Ultra short platform (less than 50 feet in length), and unable to fully accommodate even the two car trains usually used on the Kyle of Lochalsh / Far North lines. Single door opening?

DaventryRabbit said:
Yes. As are many of the intermeadiate Far North and Kyle Line Stops

Other than Conon Bridge, which stations/stops would they be?

VT 390 · 26 Jul 2026

Mcr Warrior said:
Other than Conon Bridge, which stations/stops would they be?

Duncraig and Attadale on the Kyle line. From what I remember all the other Far North/Kyle stations can accommodate the full 2 carriages.

A S Leib · 26 Jul 2026

As a relatively selective example for the southeast, on a temporary basis whilst lifts are being constructed, three or four carriages of trains have doors opening at Apsley, on trains of up to ten* carriages.

*I'm not sure exactly which way around it is for 350s and 730s, beyond seeing twelve-car 350s having Apsley calls cancelled and otherwise running fine last week. I'm not sure if that was just down to available platform length.

notspy · 26 Jul 2026

When 68+Mk5As stopped at Mossley with the loco leading, only 2 out of the five carriages opened with ASDO.

marshlinker · 26 Jul 2026

Doleham and Three Oaks on Marshlink are both front coach only of 3.

Cletus · 26 Jul 2026

Saltash is a station where only a couple of the 9/10 carriages open. The mid-platform signal doesn’t help.

Trainguy34 · 26 Jul 2026

Westenhanger only does 5 of up to 12 carriages, despite the down platform being able to hold at least 8!

boiledbeans2 · 26 Jul 2026

A S Leib said:
As a relatively selective example for the southeast, on a temporary basis whilst lifts are being constructed, three or four carriages of trains have doors opening at Apsley, on trains of up to ten* carriages.

*I'm not sure exactly which way around it is for 350s and 730s, beyond seeing twelve-car 350s having Apsley calls cancelled and otherwise running fine last week. I'm not sure if that was just down to available platform length.

Bushey calls are also often cancelled if the train is running on the fast line heading north. So 0 doors opened on a 10 or 12-car train.

pokemonsuper9 · 26 Jul 2026

For 350s, Rugeley, Atherstone, Liverpool South Parkway (and more less common stops) are Unit DeSelect 4 from 12.

Of course as already mentioned loads of stations operate via local door.

Noticed at Hornsey yesterday stop markers for a FLU (i.e. 12 car 700) to SDO down to 6.
Some stations in Cumbria sometimes get served by 6 car 195s which don't fully fit, not sure what the shortest is but there are definitely some stations that leave the rear 3 locked.

Bedwyn32 · 26 Jul 2026

ETMbloke said:
Shawford, in the Down direction, where only the doors in the front 3 coaches of a 10 coach 444 are released, springs to mind.

That's platform 3 only at Shawford. Platform 1 and 2 for a 444 is 4 carriages and on a 450 p1 and p2 are 5 carriages and p3 is 4 carriages.

izvor · 26 Jul 2026

Trainguy34 said:
Westenhanger only does 5 of up to 12 carriages, despite the down platform being able to hold at least 8!

That one's a puzzle; is it because it has to match the up platform for some reason? It's a pain for the guard to have to keep calling passengers right down the platform.

Bill57p9 · 26 Jul 2026

Cletus said:
Saltash is a station where only a couple of the 9/10 carriages open. The mid-platform signal doesn’t help.

Having just been up and down the Cornish mainline a number of times in the past couple of weeks... I recall that down trains have more doors available than up trains, which as you state are front 2 carriages only - which means first class only on a 9 car.

Trainguy34 · 27 Jul 2026

izvor said:
That one's a puzzle; is it because it has to match the up platform for some reason? It's a pain for the guard to have to keep calling passengers right down the platform.

I think it might be due to the ASDO at the station being GPS based at a guess, I know it is to match the up but that's my best guess as to why.

TRIVIA: Stations where a high proportion of doors remain closed due to Selective Door Opening

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