Those Victoria Line train doors: what’s happening?

I took the chance of seeing Caroline Pidgeon at a public meeting in Westminster to ask her about the ever problematic doors on Victoria Line trains.

Here’s the detailed follow-up she sent me:

As you know, the sensitive door edges have not gone unnoticed by passengers or TfL (they even got a mention on the BBC documentary ‘The Tube‘!) and TfL have admitted that the sensitive-edge door system, which is a safety design feature, has proved far too effective at detecting small objects such as bag straps from within the train, which do not present any risk, rather than objects from the platform side.

As a result, London Underground have been working with Bombardier to resolve this issue, undertaking remedial works including a change to the wiring of the doors in the short-term and a permanent engineering modification which is now being finalised for implementation across the entire fleet.

If the sensitive-edge door system detects an obstruction while the Victoria line train is in the platform, the driver is instructed to open and close the doors again to check if the obstruction is cleared. If this happens as the train is starting to move out of a platform, the system activates the emergency brakes and brings the train to a stop. Drivers are instructed to use the CCTV system to assure themselves that no one is trapped in the doors and that there is no risk of an accident. Once they have confirmed this, they can override the door system which allows the train to proceed.

According to TfL there has been a steady improvement in the performance of the new Victoria line trains, which are now on average over five times more reliable than at the end of 2010.

I hope this is helpful, as ever, please let me know if you have any further questions or comments.