I'm with Chris B and the other Nay voters on this one, train is not scheduled to stop, Network Rail have not given permission for the stop to uplift or set down passengers and FGW▸ would strictly speaking not be insured for passengers joining or alighting at that station.
Now imagine driver opens doors, passenger slips and falls down the gap, who do you recon FGW will pin the blame on? The driver would probably be out the door and the next week commuters would moan that their train has been cancelled due to a lack of traincrew.
For goodness sake people. This is a FGW train, at a FGW station platform that identical FGW trains stop at all day long. In the circumstances we have been discussing the driver has confirmed all of his train is on the platform, and Network Rail have agreed via the signaller for the driver to open the doors (nobody has suggested that they haven't in any post). To suggest that FGW would be any more liable to passenger slips and falls
or that slips and falls are any more likely to happen than on any other train that is scheduled to stop there is silly.
To suggest that for some reason FGW would not be covered by insurance is frankly absurd. What happens when a train has to terminate as a failure? If we follow your line of thinking then if the train's not due to call at whatever station the passengers would just have to stay on board.
Even worse, a passenger tries to board after the driver has shut the doors and taken power and the passenger falls down the gap, with do despatch equipment to look at the driver would have no way of knowing.
As for dispatching the train with no
DOO▸ equipment, if we take the Oxford to Paddington route as an example what do you think happens in the up direction at Radley, Appleford, Cholsey, Pangbourne, Twyford, and Acton Main line? There is NO DOO equipment provided at these stations. Drivers dispatch themselves via the 'look back' method. Once they have looked back, closed the doors, observed that all is clear then they depart. After they have taken power there is no requirement to continue to observe the train - funnily enough it's considered more important to observe the signals!
That is exactly what would have happened at West Ealing had the driver opened the doors before departing in the opposite direction to normal. Furthermore, what's to stop that scenario you've cooked up happening if the doors hadn't been opened at all anyway?
The rule book is quite clear when it says:
If you are working a passenger or empty coaching stock train with
power-operated doors which is stopped at a platform it is not
booked to stop at, you must not release the doors.
As for rule book quotes (which module did you get that from anyway - after a quick search I can't find it!), as is often the case, with the authority of the signaller - and in some cases the
TOC▸ 's control - you can pretty much do whatever you want to!
