At 13 Elizabeth line stations, not all sets of doors on trains open - but one has a rather unusual reason why
09:37, 03 Jun 2023
Although the Elizabeth line is often referred to as London's newest railway, it's much more of a 'Frankenstein'. It has a brand new central section between Paddington, Abbey Wood and Stratford which links up with various pre-existing railways to Heathrow, Reading and Shenfield. Although all of the stations on the new central section can accommodate the 204 metre-long nine carriage Elizabeth line trains, many stations on the older sections can't.
The workaround for this is a practice called 'selective door operation' (SDO) where trains can have some doors open and others remain closed when stopping at a particular station platform. In the case of the Elizabeth line, this is usually because a piece of infrastructure prohibits the platform from being extended to fit the long trains (e.g. a bridge, an embankment or limited clearance).
SDO is used at Twyford , Taplow (eastbound), Burnham , Langley , Iver , Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 (some platforms), Hayes & Harlington (some platforms), Hanwell , Maryland , Forest Gate , Manor Park and Seven Kings . At Paddington some platforms are curved so sharply that some doors in the centre of trains don't open. All doors in the front six carriages in the direction of travel of all Elizabeth line trains open at all stations.
However, the eastbound Elizabeth line platform (platform 4) at Twyford is unique as to why SDO is needed.
Towards the western end of the platform, the track which allows trains to serve the platform splits into two, with one track bringing Elizabeth line trains into Twyford from Reading, and another which follows the platform to its very end before continuing onto the single track line to Henley-on-Thames. GWR trains to Henley only use this track on rare occasions, such as for the Henley Regatta or to swap out trainsets - they usually terminate in adjacent platform 5 instead.
This means that when an Elizabeth line train pulls into platform 4 at Twyford, there is a significant gap of over two metres between the rearmost doors and the platform, as the train comes to a stop over the location where the two tracks split/ join. To the untrained eye it may appear to be a ludicrous scenario as the gap is so large, but safety notices both on the platform and on the train's information screens ensure nobody attempts to board that part of the train. Red buttons light up on the train doors which remain closed to alert passengers, and announcements also encourage people to move towards the front.
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