The door open button in the passenger compartment is disabled when that end's cab is in use, the emergency exit display above the door comes on, and outside the train there is a 'door out of use' message displayed.

You'll then see that if the guard or trolley dolly needs to get into the vestibule, they have to use a carriage key above the door. But from within the vestibule, the door control works normally.

For emergency egress passengers can use an emergency button in a break glass box, like a fire alarm call button, mounted adjacent to the normal button. 

As said elsewhere, it all happens automatically when the driver is keyed on at that cab, which is why the door becomes available at Waterloo. I expect the idea that it is a restriction for First is that the trains, especially 159s are nearly always that they round.

Paul

There's a key difference. The Hants scheme is just a dedicated normal single carriageway road for buses, bypassing the A32 bottleneck. It isn't a guided busway like Cambridge.

Paul

I don't really know. One possibility explained years ago was that the specific 'tokenless block' signalling arrangements used on the line make it more likely that the drivers have to use the signal post telephones. However another story I've heard is that it was considered more dangerous for pax because if they did fall out they'd also have the third rail, and another track to contend with in the four track areas between Basingstoke and London.

The decision was possibly made so long ago, that many of the current drivers don't really know why themselves anymore. Suffice to say that the door lock mods were fitted to all the additional 158s and 159s in fairly quick time.

Paul

Yes - the intention still appears to slew the tracks (or at least one track) to the south onto the adjacent disused marshalling yard site

The National Rail disruptions page now includes: "Network Rail engineers are working hard to provide a temporary solution which will allow a limited train service to operate from Monday 23 November."

Apparently a lot of machinery is heading towards the site for the weekend.

Paul

Depends which way round the unit is surely. No one worries about you walking through First Class on the Hants local 158s.

If though, you mean why can't you get out of the front doors, it is because of an agreement with the union that the front vestibule is out of bounds. It was supposedly agreed (from what I've been told in the past) so that there are no issues on the West of England single track sections if the driver needs to get out of the train at a signal.  A ssimilar restriction applied to the 442s when SWT used them.

Paul

Case was thrown out:

'Miss Morge, 57, of Wych Lane, Gosport, said: 'I'm disappointed that the decision didn't go my way, but it has not deterred me... 'After all the work we did, we aren't just going to give up ^ we've got to fight. 'My barrister is going to the Court of Appeal and I'm just not going to let this beat me. 'The wildlife is being disturbed by this and I don't want a bus route that is going nowhere right by the side of my house and others." 
...the judge 'indicated that there was no prospect of success at appeal'.

Possibly not really a bat freak after all then. 

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/fareham-and-meon/I39ll-keep-fighting-against-bus.5836675.jp

Paul

There is a problem with long shifts for signallers convenience, and it appears the RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) are onto the problem. The report into the 66 derailment at East Somerset Junction near Westbury dwells on the signaller's shift patterns, and cross refers to some other cases.

http://www.raib.gov.uk/sites/raib/cms_resources.cfm?file=/091110_R282009_East%20Somerset%20Junction.pdf

So as suggested above, it would be next to impossible for the safety card to be played in this dispute.

Paul

 

The reporter probably got told that there was to be a half hourly service for commuters.

So, because as we know, reporters all believe commuter and passenger are synonymous, they get confused. This is because when the railway talks about commuter services, they mean services that are run only in the peaks...

Paul 

Unusually, a link to a high quality picture has been provided with the National Rail site's disruptions info:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/additional_info/Feltham_Bridge_Nov09.JPG

Paul

Er... except when you are trying to unseat someone in a supposed 'railway town', and you need to bribe the electorate...

Paul

It's the River Crane. Runs through a tunnel, previously a subway, some distance east of the station, and just west of the Royal Mail sorting office, which is at the end of the former marshalling yard site of outstanding natural er.. wasteground. (There are two river courses, one open and one buried).  Fairly easy to locate on multimap or similar.

Might have been some sort of scheme to increase the river's capacity, as it drains a fair old area, although Google doesn't show anything up.

One suggestion made elsewhere is that they might slew the tracks to the south, onto more solid support...

Paul

I reckon you need to have a Labour MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) who's seat is unsafe (eg Barking) for this round of handouts...

Paul

More correctly, it will no longer be possible to get a direct train from the Paddington circle district line platforms to Baker Street, Kings Cross and Liverpool Street, after the alterations to the Circle Line. It will still be possible to get a train and change at Edgware Rd, if pax go to the Praed St platforms.

Paul

As FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are already running ex Silverlink Metro 150s, presumably that gives them a fair idea of the state of the other (now LO) units anyway?

Paul

Just having a browse through the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) the other day, I happened to look again at their suggestions for Portsmouth - Cardiff, one of which AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) is that some peak services be speeded up, with additional trains to run as reliefs to pick up the short hops between local stations, maybe as far as Warminster?

This got me thinking again about just what is the current point of those few odd workings to Southampton, that since the handover of Dean and Mottisfont to SWT^▸ (South West Trains), seem to run just ahead or just behind other services.  Should these services be curtailed at Salisbury?

I have thought for a while that the Brighton extensions are past their sell by date in view of the current SN service pattern - indeed I have responded to the Sussex RUS consultation with a suggestion that these trips be cut back to Southampton, albeit coincident with SNs addition of an hourly service to Southampton on Sundays, which is planned for Dec 2010.  But should these also be cut back to Salisbury?

I know when I've mentioned this before people have pointed out the usefulness of that once a day Bristol - Brighton service, and its two returns - but I think the 'greater good' is served by using the units in FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s home area.  Is the optimum service pattern to only run the Cardiff - Portsmouth across Salisbury, and have any other FGW services - including from Swindon perhaps - running into Platform 5 at Salisbury, mirroring SWT's locals, ideally running from Platform 6?

Maybe there is a feasible scheme whereby there can be a stopper between Westbury and Salisbury in most hours?

Is the above completely out of step with the general 'coffee shop' point of view?

Paul