The 2 minute till departure door locking rule.

[6Gman]

I believe it is normal practice at Paddington to remove trains from the depauture screens 3 mins before departure. If you know the platform you can still get through the gates though.

At Euston you're lucky if the platform is up for 3 mins before departure!

 

[edwin_m]

What is immensely frustrating is to aim to arrive about 10min before, then be held up by factors such as tube/bus delays and reach the barrier a minute or so before advertised departure time. The train is there, you would have enough time to reach the first door but the barrier staff refuse to let you try.

I'm aware of all the reasons for this but my point is that it makes passengers very angry either with the railway in general or with the so-called jobsworths who run the barrier, even though they are enforcing a policy set by some faceless manager somewhere who never has to endure the comeback. Count the above double or triple if you have an Advance ticket and the company benefits from your misfortune to the tune of a walk-up ticket for the next train.

 

[6Gman]

What is immensely frustrating is to aim to arrive about 10min before, then be held up by factors such as tube/bus delays and reach the barrier a minute or so before advertised departure time. The train is there, you would have enough time to reach the first door but the barrier staff refuse to let you try.

I'm aware of all the reasons for this but my point is that it makes passengers very angry either with the railway in general or with the so-called jobsworths who run the barrier, even though they are enforcing a policy set by some faceless manager somewhere who never has to endure the comeback. Count the above double or triple if you have an Advance ticket and the company benefits from your misfortune to the tune of a walk-up ticket for the next train.

If you hold an advance ticket I would suggest leaving a greater margin than ten minutes.

 

[Antman]

But then people will expect to board at that time instead though :/ The Railways will never win sadly.

No they won't but we've been through this umpteen times before
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There are two ways of dealing with it. The British way is to say that the train actually starts moving at the advertised departure time, and this means that it has to be absolutely clear to passengers that it's their job to allow enough time for the despatch procedures to take place -- so that if they turn up at 10:29:55 they won't get on because the doors will all be closed. Or you can do it the German way, which is that the doors actually close on 10:30. But this means that the allowance for the despatch procedures has to be included in the first point-to-point time. Both ways work fine, but everyone needs to know (and work to) whichever pattern is being followed.

Well the Germans get my vote
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It can and does happen regularly at suburban stations in London. Occasionally I've seen the driver stop just after moving off and release the doors for a running passenger.

As for the buses, it depends on various factors. I used to drive the U4 in West London. Even one 10 second delay for a late passenger would almost guarantee that you'd lose headway and end up being overtaken by the bus behind, thanks to the stop in Hayes Town centre where people never stop arriving to catch the bus. The bigger the gap ahead, the longer you end up at the stop for want of a window big enough to get those front doors shut and get away. On low frequency and night routes I'd wait for every runner.

I did exactly the same when I was on the buses, I tried not to leave anybody behind but at busy stops where there is almost a continuous flow of passengers you had to draw the line somewhere

 

[QueensCurve]

Because trains aren't aircraft and do not operate in the same manner.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Unfortunately, some train operators seem to be aping aviation when aviation....
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Well the Germans get my vote

Mine too.