Poor Design Examples....

[pdeaves]

Experienced the external door buttons beside internal door on a class 397 . Made worse by the fact button for internal door hidden away.

This one? - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/poor-design-examples.237856/page-3#post-5873619 'They' can't have done much better at completely hiding the one thing that ought to be visible!

 

[Rick1984]

That's the one. Even after reading on here, I pressed the big green button several times. Decided it wasn't working and walked to other end !

 

[uglymonkey]

If we're moaning about station toilets, the ones at London Bridge are awful for a no expense spared, completely rebuilt station.

Far too small and congested, with the urinals down one end, the sinks down the other (by the WCs) and the hand dryers located near the entrance.

Why on earth are they outside the ticket barriers? You have to exit the barrier, go to the toilet then reenter the barriers again for your train. Worried that the barrier will "eat" your ticket all the time. It must drive the staff mad, people asking to go through the barrier all the time, without inserting the ticket as they are worried about access later down the line ( or getting back in again ). They are technically not "in " the station at all, but in an underground vault corridor towards the tube station. Try being disabled and getting to the toilet and back ! Unnecessary stress !

 

[D6975]

Why on earth are they outside the ticket barriers? You have to exit the barrier, go to the toilet then reenter the barriers again for your train. Worried that the barrier will "eat" your ticket all the time. It must drive the staff mad, people asking to go through the barrier all the time, without inserting the ticket as they are worried about access later down the line ( or getting back in again ). They are technically not "in " the station at all, but in an underground vault corridor towards the tube station. Try being disabled and getting to the toilet and back ! Unnecessary stress !

Never mind the eating ticket problem - if you go through the barriers to visit the loo or to visit a food outlet (as I sometimes do at Clapham Jn), chances are your ticket will be rejected as the barriers are set up not to allow the same ticket back through for about 5 minutes. Some stations are set up differently, like Victoria where you can move between the two sets of platforms.

 

[stuu]

Why on earth are they outside the ticket barriers for? You have to exit the barrier, go to the toilet then reenter the barriers again for your train. Worried that the barrier will "eat" your ticket all the time. It must drive the staff mad, people asking to go through the barrier all the time, without inserting the ticket as they are worried about access later down the line ( or getting back in again ). They are technically not "in " the station at all, but in an underground vault corridor towards the tube station. Try being disabled and getting to the toilet and back ! Unnecessary stress !

I would have thought that at London Bridge a far higher number of people who need to use the toilet will be starting or finishing their journeys there, if you are interchanging then you have either come a very short distance from another major terminal, or got off a train which had toilets anyway... and therefore having the toilets outside the gateline is more sensible

 

[Wolfie]

I would have thought that at London Bridge a far higher number of people who need to use the toilet will be starting or finishing their journeys there, if you are interchanging then you have either come a very short distance from another major terminal, or got off a train which had toilets anyway... and therefore having the toilets outside the gateline is more sensible

One of the major TOCs using London Bridge is Southeastern. Quite a high proportion of their trains have no toilets.

 

[Sunil_P]

Apologies if already mentioned, given they entered squadron service back in 2017, but the 345s lack a door open button on the inside actually on the doors themselves (like they do on the outside). The very similar 710s do have door-mounted buttons on both inside and out.

 

[gabrielhj07]

One of the major TOCs using London Bridge is Southeastern. Quite a high proportion of their trains have no toilets.

I suppose that’s to be expected on metro services. Quite a few SE trains do though.

 

[Wolfie]

I suppose that’s to be expected on metro services. Quite a few SE trains do though.

Except that it isn't true of Southern and soon won't be of SWR either. London Overground though....

 

[MisterSheeps]

Manchester Metrolink LRVs have a feature where you press the door button before the stop, it flashes yellow to confirm the press, and opens on doors being enabled ... would be good if the real railway had this, rather than a reactive press action when doors are enabled

 

[Mikey C]

London Bridge is a massive station, and has been created to be a bit of a public space too, with its shops. It really should have toilets outside AND inside the gateline.

After all the old London Bridge had toilets on the through platforms, which were well used. They could easily have designed the lower concourse within the gateline to include toilets.

 

[markymark2000]

Manchester Metrolink LRVs have a feature where you press the door button before the stop, it flashes yellow to confirm the press, and opens on doors being enabled ... would be good if the real railway had this, rather than a reactive press action when doors are enabled

Isn't that feature meant to be there to kind of warn the driver that a less able person is wishing to alight and may need additional time so don't shut the doors too early?

 

[stuu]

One of the major TOCs using London Bridge is Southeastern. Quite a high proportion of their trains have no toilets.

Yes, I should have said changing to or from a train with toilets. There can't be many people changing between southeastern metro services who headed into LB to go back out again

 

[Goldfish62]

Isn't that feature meant to be there to kind of warn the driver that a less able person is wishing to alight and may need additional time so don't shut the doors too early?

No, it's a standard feature as on trams and buses (and some metros) elsewhere in Europe. The driver releases the doors rather than open them and any doors which have had the "request to open" button already pressed will open. Other doors will remain closed unless the door button is subsequently pressed.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I'd had a thought earlier in the week about something to put on this thread, but then forgot what it was... I've remembered now though, and it's two-fold:
The ASDO system fitted to 185s, which requires a manual over-ride to open the doors on the last (Leeds end) carriage at Huddersfield platform 6. Not a huge deal, unless there's a wheelchair user on board and the unit has the composite coach at the Eastern end. I can understand the need for ASDO at intermediate stops, particularly if the train actually is longer than the platform... but Huddersfield P6 only fits a 3-car unit, and if the train was too long the signal wouldn't clear ("Lime Street Control" is the name for that system I believe) so unless a driver stops short (something I've never seen happen there, and I trust the drivers to know what they're doing) it doesn't seem necessary.

As an addition to that grumble, whoever decided that the Leeds stopper should revert to using P6 instead of P4a a few years ago needs a good talking to with no biscuits (or at least no good biscuits, just pink wafers and custard creams). The Bradford now uses P4a despite never being longer than 2 cars.

 

[theageofthetra]

Why on earth are they outside the ticket barriers? You have to exit the barrier, go to the toilet then reenter the barriers again for your train. Worried that the barrier will "eat" your ticket all the time. It must drive the staff mad, people asking to go through the barrier all the time, without inserting the ticket as they are worried about access later down the line ( or getting back in again ). They are technically not "in " the station at all, but in an underground vault corridor towards the tube station. Try being disabled and getting to the toilet and back ! Unnecessary stress !

There are disabled toilets at the country end of the S. Eastern side (sorry don't know about the terminus side) platforms, and be accessed with a radar key or by asking any of the platform staff.

 

[MisterSheeps]

Isn't that feature meant to be there to kind of warn the driver that a less able person is wishing to alight and may need additional time so don't shut the doors too early?

which would, additionally, be an excellent way of alerting the driver to a conditional stop request (the sort where you currently have to find the guard to ask them to stop at e.g. Entwistle)