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  • Metro resumes automatic train door opening on the red line

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1511684  by davinp
 
Metrorail customers on the Red Line may notice a quicker commute starting July 7, as Metro resumes use of trains’ automatic door-opening feature. Over the past several months, Metro has tested and tuned the system and trained hundreds of train operators in advance of the milestone.

The automatic door opening feature is part of the original design of the Metrorail system, but its use was discontinued years ago due to a decline in reliability.

As you know, on the 7000 series there is a delay in opening the doors because the computer is checking to make sure everything is OK

https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Doors- ... ins.cfm?HP
 #1511993  by Sand Box John
 
farecard
This is so obvious that there must be a reason it's not the solution.....

To avoid wrong-side openings, have the left-side open button by the left-side window.
Have the right-side open button by the right window.


That solution has been in place sense day one. Left door controls on left, right door controls on right. Thing is, with the train protection feature that prevent door openings on the wrong side or off the platform disabled operators can mistakenly open the wrong doors.

I am assuming the issue that sometime resulted in automatic door openings on the wrong side has been corrected and the train protection feature that prevents door openings on the wrong side or off the platform has been re-enabled as part of the resumption of automatic door opening.
 #1511994  by STrRedWolf
 
That assumes the operator has the right situational awareness to remember which side to open. The operator sits on the right hand side, and such it's easy to open the right hand side. For left hand side opening, the operator has to move to the left hand side and hit the button.

In other words, the problem is "humans are slow and error prone." The solution is "Have a computer look for the signal and open the right doors when it finds the right one for that station."

So yes, if you can have passengers getting on/off the train while the operator is taking their time getting up, stretching, shifting their weight ten feet, twisting, and poking their head out the window to see if anyone's running down the stairs so they can hit the button and slam the door in their face (serves 'em right for rushing until the last minute), then the trains can run faster because they don't have to wait for somebody to open the freakin' doors and let the damn Congress critters out (gawd they keep scratching the doors).

(Sorry, the board doesn't have "Snark" tags here...)
 #1512023  by Sand Box John
 
@ STrRedWolf
Doors were opening on the wrong side or off the platform because the subsystem that prevented it would occasionally act stupid. The acting stupid was cause by interference noise from power upgrades. WMATA in their infinite wisdom chose to disable both the automatic door opening function and the train protection feature that prevents door openings on the wrong side or off the platform. WMATA sometime ago corrected the acting stupid problem but never got around to re-enabled protection feature until now.

With train protection feature enabled, door opening on the wrong side, be it manually or automatically, should not happen anymore.
 #1512044  by STrRedWolf
 
Sand Box John wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2019 2:08 pm @ STrRedWolf
Doors were opening on the wrong side or off the platform because the subsystem that prevented it would occasionally act stupid. The acting stupid was cause by interference noise from power upgrades. WMATA in their infinite wisdom chose to disable both the automatic door opening function and the train protection feature that prevents door openings on the wrong side or off the platform. WMATA sometime ago corrected the acting stupid problem but never got around to re-enabled protection feature until now.

With train protection feature enabled, door opening on the wrong side, be it manually or automatically, should not happen anymore.
Sounds like there's a "Train Software Development" department in WMATA and it got overloaded with all the technical problems that plauged the system. It's just gotten around to it because the plate was overloaded with other higher-priority items. (Note I do not know what that priority ranking is)