Nothern Line: Scary situation, doors did not open

[Vielreisender]

Hello people,

my third visit to London after 13 years and it came to a scary situation....

We were on Friday in the Northern Line direction London Bridge. One stop before the doors did not open. Since we did not have to get off here, but we just thought that the driver forgot to release the doors.

When we arrived in London Bridge, however, the shock: Here, too, the doors of our car did not open! We could observe from the other cars, however, that these work.

Immediately, a fellow passenger flipped up the cover of the SOS button and pulled the button. After about 10 seconds, the driver responded and the problem was communicated. Within 30 seconds, personnel were seen walking along. However, they did not get the doors open.

The intermediate doors were then opened and we were able to exit through another car. When we were then on the way up, the announcement came over the loudspeaker that there would be delays on the line and then finally that the train would be evacuated and cancelled.

The situation scared us. Does something like this happen often?

 

[bcarmicle]

I use the Northern Line quite a lot and have never seen an incident that requires the train to be taken out of service, so you were quite unlucky. It's not clear why you were scared - however, if it was because you were worried that there might not have been a way out, hopefully you are reassured by the fact that it is always possible to evacuate to another car, and drivers are trained to evacuate passengers in an emergency.

For waht it's worth, the only dangerous Tube door incident that I can think of is https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/report-06-2019-train-travelling-with-doors-open-on-the-jubilee-line, which is sort of the opposite of your incident - I'm not sure that that will reassure you, but better to be honest!

 

[Dstock7080]

It was actually Thursday 19/10 17.43 doors failed to open southbound T103 51546 car 5. Out of service, defect confirmed by examiner at Kennington

 

[Blindtraveler]

I wonder if the 95 stock are going through a mini epidemic of door problems at the moment as I was delayed 20 odd minutes at king's cross a few weeks ago going northbound towards edgeware by door interlock issues, again resulting in termination and cancellation!

 

[jon81uk]

You were just unlucky, out of thousands of tube journeys over the last ten years I've never had an issue. The other passenger did the right thing of pulling the alarm at the station and then given the doors were opening in the next carriage were working there was no reason to be scared as exit was possible via the connecting doors.

I forget if it was Athens or Barcelona but one other metro I was on this year had an issue with the door not opening, but then making a loud thump and managing to open. We moved down and used a different door when it was our stop!

 

[LUYMun]

The situation you’ve described sounds quite similar to a YouTube video I've seen where one car of a Bakerloo line train could not open its doors at a few stations, only to then be able to do so some point later.

 

[jumble]

I use the Northern Line quite a lot and have never seen an incident that requires the train to be taken out of service, so you were quite unlucky. It's not clear why you were scared - however, if it was because you were worried that there might not have been a way out, hopefully you are reassured by the fact that it is always possible to evacuate to another car, and drivers are trained to evacuate passengers in an emergency.

For waht it's worth, the only dangerous Tube door incident that I can think of is https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/report-06-2019-train-travelling-with-doors-open-on-the-jubilee-line, which is sort of the opposite of your incident - I'm not sure that that will reassure you, but better to be honest!

I have a couple of times over the years been on 1973 Piccadilly line trains where the plate that covers the door mechanism has fallen off leaving gubbins exposed inside
Of course I reported this to staff when i got off the train

 

[Vielreisender]

It's not clear why you were scared - however, if it was because you were worried that there might not have been a way out, hopefully you are reassured by the fact that it is always possible to evacuate to another car, and drivers are trained to evacuate passengers in an emergency.

Yes I had a kind of "sensory overload" and then in a dark, narrow tunnel, I had slight panic when it didn't go out. The openable intermediate doors were also unknown to me at that moment.

It was actually Thursday 19/10 17.43 doors failed to open southbound T103 51546 car 5. Out of service, defect confirmed by examiner at Kennington

Thanks for the confirmation.

And I am reassured that it was an unfortunate almost unique case and now I know not to have any more concerns in the future.

 

[321over360]

I have noticed lately especially when going home, several 1992 stock which seem to have a slight delay in opening of the doors in the platform, sometimes i dont think the Driver is immediately aware either as one time i was at Stratford and it was likely due to people including myself looking confused that they realised the doors hadnt actually opened at the platform and opened them, so i dont think the door issue is line specific anymore as the Central Line has its own problems developing

 

[philthetube]

I wonder if the 95 stock are going through a mini epidemic of door problems at the moment as I was delayed 20 odd minutes at king's cross a few weeks ago going northbound towards edgeware by door interlock issues, again resulting in termination and cancellation!

This should never have taken 20 mins, out of service, cut out door interlocks and away you go.

 

[sh24]

Had it happen once on a 1959 stock at Waterloo, southbound on the Northern. The doors then worked fine at Kennington and the driver was politely sceptical we had an issue before.

 

[DavyCrocket]

This should never have taken 20 mins, out of service, cut out door interlocks and away you go.

Two problems now are complexity of the stock means the usual cut out doesn’t work and or there is another issue
And if no doors closed visual and door is open, the station is unstaffed or would have to close in case of mandated numbers

 

[MasterSpenny]

The situation you’ve described sounds quite similar to a YouTube video I've seen where one car of a Bakerloo line train could not open its doors at a few stations, only to then be able to do so some point later.

This has also happened with a Jubilee Line train where the regular doors open fine. The platform screen doors then don’t open and people just manually open them. (Not my video)

 

[Andrew S]

I saw that happen recently on the Jubilee line, ie train door opened but PED didn't. Someone decided to force the PED to open, but the train door closed whilst he was doing so. Thankfully he got the PED open before the train started moving.

 

[Russel]

"Scary", May be a bit dramatic.

 

[northwichcat]

"Scary", May be a bit dramatic.

I notice the poster is from Germany. They have high expectations for train services. When I was in Germany I remember seeing someone outraged when there was an announcement a S-Bahn service had been cancelled due to a defect and the next one was in 6 minutes.

Does something like this happen often?

I've never experienced it on the London Underground. In the North of England, it happens too frequently with the 1980s Sprinter trains used by Northern Trains (and the Pacers before they were withdrawn). It usually results in the guard attempting to fix it and if that doesn't work the train remains in service, either with a "door out of use" notice being stuck to the window, or the carriage being locked out-of-use. It seems the London Underground have a different approach to the same problem. I think in Manchester the Metrolink trams also get taken out-of-service straight away if there's door problems.

With London Underground it's not usually going to add too much time to your journey if you have to get off at a subsequent station and then travel back.

 

[Dstock7080]

Two problems now are complexity of the stock means the usual cut out doesn’t work and or there is another issue
And if no doors closed visual and door is open, the station is unstaffed or would have to close in case of mandated numbers

This should never have taken 20 mins, out of service, cut out door interlocks and away you go.

16 October: Waterloo NB Bakerloo 14.17 doors failing to close, 14.46 defective train moving.
28 October: Oval NB Northern 18.40 doors failing to close, 18.58 defective train moving.

 

[43066]

This should never have taken 20 mins, out of service, cut out door interlocks and away you go.

If it’s anything like mainline DOO trains it’ll mean: contacting signaller when the fault appears; walking back to investigate the issue (it’s invariably towards the back of the train); deciding that locking out is the way to go; kicking off/locking each coach out; returning to the cab and finally calling the signaller back to get permission to continue.

That can easily eat up 15-20 minutes from the time the fault is first noticed to getting moving again ECS.

 

[bramling]

If it’s anything like mainline DOO trains it’ll mean: contacting signaller when the fault appears; walking back to investigate the issue (it’s invariably towards the back of the train); deciding that locking out is the way to go; kicking off/locking each coach out; returning to the cab and finally calling the signaller back to get permission to continue.

That can easily eat up 15-20 minutes from the time the fault is first noticed to getting moving again ECS.

The biggest problem is nowadays getting people to actually leave the train. Not so much a problem during something like the evening rush hour, but a nightmare on a Saturday afternoon. There’s pretty much guaranteed to be one or more unresponsive drunks who turn nasty when disturbed, such is London in the 2020s.

There’s also the issue that if doors can’t be closed then it’s necessary for staff to be found to ride in the car. Since the “fit for the future” reorganisation of a few years ago it can be difficult to find such staff at tunnel locations without having to close the station.

 

[Route115?]

I had a problem with 1959 stock on the Northern once. It just affected one car and people used the communicated door to the next vehicle. I seem to remember that pre DOO you would often see the guard press the door open buttons more than once, presumably to be on the safe side as they had had an experience with doors not opening.