倫敦維多利亞線CBTC改造后的車門關閉提示音時長影響研究

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1、概述

本文圍繞倫敦地鐵維多利亞線的車門關閉提示音時長展開研究，為平衡列車運量、乘客安全與無障礙乘客的需求，倫敦地鐵開展了將提示音從1.8秒（1.75秒+0.25秒）延長至3秒的六個月試驗，結果顯示3秒時長雖符合RVAR法規(guī)要求，但會加劇“匆忙登車”效應，導致車門障礙物事件增加32%（部分車站達80%）、乘客絆倒/推擠風險上升，且未給殘疾與非殘疾乘客帶來實質(zhì)便利，最終維多利亞線恢復原時長，同時文章還提及未來全自動列車（UTO）等技術對車門運營的潛在影響。

2、研究背景與核心動因

?行業(yè)發(fā)展與運能需求：CBTC技術在地鐵的廣泛應用，倫敦地鐵維多利亞線借助該技術實現(xiàn)雙向36對/小時的高運量，大幅改善乘客擁擠狀況；泰晤士link、橫貫鐵路等線路也計劃推廣CBTC技術以提升運能。

?關鍵制約因素：列車停站時間是影響運量的核心—若停留時間超數(shù)秒，后續(xù)列車延誤將快速累積；若服務間隔達到3-4分鐘，站臺擁擠會進一步延長停留時間，形成惡性循環(huán)。

?法規(guī)與實際矛盾：2010年《鐵路車輛無障礙條例》（RVAR）要求延長車門提示音時長以保障殘疾乘客權益，但倫敦地鐵擔憂該要求缺乏科學依據(jù)，可能引發(fā)運營問題，因此啟動專項試驗。

3、車門關閉相關機制

?列車到站停穩(wěn)并對準位置后，司機啟動開門；乘客上下車完成后，關門提示音響起，隨后車門開始關閉；若車門無異物，司機的關門指示燈亮起，ATO（自動列車運行）線路可按下啟動按鈕，手動駕駛線路則由司機啟動牽引力。

?核心爭議：提示音時長差異的影響

時長差異：LU標準1.8秒 vs RVAR要求3秒，單次差異雖小，但全程累積會顯著降低整體運能；

倉促效應：提示音響起時，乘客會急于就近上車避免錯過列車—通勤常客會先尋找目的地出口附近的車門，而非立即上車；游客等非常客則可能攜帶行李沖向最近車門，易導致上車不充分，引發(fā)車門卡住；

卡住后果：每起車門卡住至少需5秒解決，若沿線路累積，延誤影響顯著。

?不同列車的車門安全設計差異

現(xiàn)代列車（如維多利亞線列車、S型郊區(qū)列車）：具備車門障礙物檢測功能，卡住時車門會部分重開，且車門邊緣敏感—若列車啟動后車門邊緣發(fā)生形變（即使是薄物卡住），也會觸發(fā)緊急制動；

老舊列車：需車門完全關閉后才能啟動牽引力，但該設計并非萬無一失，背包帶、腰帶等物品易被卡住且難以檢測；

乘客認知誤區(qū)：非常乘客常誤以為地鐵車門會像電梯門一樣檢測到卡住后自動重開，但英國所有帶滑動門的列車均無此功能，進一步加劇了卡住風險。

4、試驗結果

安全風險顯著上升

車門障礙物故障：3秒時長下整體增加，維多利亞北站北行站臺日均達245起，較1.8秒時期增長32%（+60起）；牛津廣場、國王十字車站日均約150起；海布里&伊斯靈頓南站早高峰增長80%。

衍生風險：更多乘客被車門撞擊/困住，絆倒、推擠事件增多；列車中部車廂（靠近換乘通道）車門卡住事件更集中。

?乘客行為變化

通勤客：熟悉站臺布局，不會立即上車，而是走向目標車門，受提示音時長影響小。

非通勤客（如游客）：聽到提示音后會攜行李匆忙沖向最近車門，3秒時長給予更多奔跑時間，導致登機不完整、車門擁堵。

?無障礙性未改善：殘疾與非殘疾乘客均表示，3秒提示音對登機便利性無實質(zhì)幫助，反而更擔憂與其他乘客的推擠互動。

?運營效率受影響：單個車門障礙物事件需≥5秒解決，沿線累積會顯著延長停留時間，降低整體運能。

5、結論與未來展望

?試驗結論：3秒提示音未帶來任何改善，反而加劇安全風險，因此維多利亞線恢復1.8秒（1.75秒+0.25秒）提示音標準；該結論已提交至TfL、DfT、DPTAC等機構。

?倫敦地鐵的無障礙承諾：持續(xù)推進全網(wǎng)絡無障礙改造，包括增加無障礙車站、優(yōu)化列車無障礙設施。

?未來趨勢：全自動列車（UTO）將普及，如巴黎地鐵1號線、14號線及21世紀20年代完成改造的格拉斯哥地鐵，車門運營將按車站、時段自動編程。超時后無論乘客是否上下車均會關門，平臺與列車均配備集中式CCTV監(jiān)控，可遠程干預異常情況。格拉斯哥地鐵現(xiàn)代化改造后，也將在21世紀20年代初采用UTO模式。干線鐵路（如泰晤士link、橫貫鐵路市中心段）可能面臨類似地鐵的停站時間挑戰(zhàn)。

原文：

Much has been written and said in recent times about efforts to improve the throughput of trains on metro and inner suburban railways. The development of CBTC technology is widely applied on such lines, and on London Underground's Victoria Line it has enabled a 36 trains per hour (tph) timetable to be achieved in each direction.

A dramatic improvement to passenger comfort has resulted and much of the severe overcrowding has been eliminated. Similar predictions are made for other LU Lines and also the Thameslink and Crossrail (Elizabeth Line) services when they reach full fruition.

However, a crucial factor in all of this is the 'dwell time' at stations to allow travellers to alight and board the trains. If the time taken for this is more than a few seconds, then very quickly the delay to following trains builds up and the intended throughput becomes unachievable. A service gap of more than three or four minutes means that crowds increase on the platform such that dwell time is extended at every station and the worsening effect is compounded. Although in theory drivers are not supposed to initiate door closure until everyone is safely on board, in practice they occasionally have to start the closure process whilst people are still squeezing in, otherwise the train would never get underway.

A further factor is now influencing the process, this being to take account of the needs of disabled people, with legislation potentially increasing the dwell time period. Whilst the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations (RVAR) of 2010 (its forebear being the Disability Discrimination Act) is intent on allowing additional time to board, the basis of this prescription may not have been scientifically derived with perhaps a less than optimum situation developing. London Underground was concerned that a negative impact could result and initiated a trial to establish exactly how passengers behave when boarding tube trains.

The door closure sequence

When a train arrives at a station, providing it is proved stationary and at the right location, door opening is initiated by the driver. After passengers have alighted and boarded, a door closure alert signal (known as a chime) sounds for a period before the doors begin to close. Providing nothing is trapped in the doors (see later paragraph), the driver's door close pilot light illuminates and the train start buttons can be pressed for ATO equipped lines or the driver engages traction power if driving manually.

The chime signal time is crucial: the LU standard is 1.75 seconds + 0.25 seconds whereas the RVAR (aligned to the Equality Act) requirement is three seconds. This difference, whilst small, can accumulate to several seconds for an end to end train journey and if applied to every train can significantly reduce the overall service throughput. More importantly however, does changing to three seconds make any detectable difference to either non-disabled or disabled passenger behaviour?

One important element is the 'hustle' effect. When the door chime sounds, a regular occurrence is for passengers to hurry into a nearby door so as to avoid waiting for the next train. Regular commuters are adept at knowing which door is nearest the exit at their destination station so will not always board a train straight away when it arrives and instead walk along the platform to the preferred door. Equally, travellers who are not regular underground users and who may be tourists from another country, on hearing the chime will rush to the nearest door often with large amounts of luggage. Any instance of incomplete boarding will result in a door obstruction situation and potential train delay. Any door obstruction takes a minimum of five seconds to resolve so the delay impact can be significant if compounded along the route. Any door obstruction incident is automatically flagged within the train software and sent by WiFi to the server, available for review by engineers within 20 minutes.

Different types of London Underground train have differing solutions to this situation. The most modern trains (Victoria and the S stock on the Sub-Surface Lines) have obstruction detection so that, should an obstruction occur, the door will reopen part way to allow the obstruction to be pulled clear. They also have sensitive door edges where any deformation of the door edge will cause an emergency brake application should the train have started to move. This deformation can be caused by even very thin items which, when caught, would be pulled on as the train begins to move. Older trains are designed to ensure doors are fully closed before traction power can be applied. The latter is not foolproof and items such as bag straps or coat belts can be trapped between the doors and are not always detectable. Unfamiliar users often expect the doors to re-open if an obstruction is detected much as they do on lifts but this is not true for Underground trains or indeed any UK train with sliding doors. All of this presents a complex set of circumstances which, when combined with the differing views on chime time, meant that a comprehensive trial was necessary to understand more completely the impact of passenger behaviour and minimising the ensuing risks.

The trial

To be meaningful, any trial must know what it sets out to do, the way it will be measured and how the results will be analysed. The intent of this exercise was to assess the impact of different door chime timings with respect to the following aspects of door usage and passenger behaviour: safety, accessibility and capacity (in that order). The trial, which took place on the Victoria Line, consisted of a number of investigations within the context of both a 1.8 seconds and 3.0 seconds chime duration, comprising:

- Door obstruction data, collected from the rolling stock.

- Platform observations

- Reported safety incidents

- Passenger survey

- Service data (dwell times, lateness)

The door obstruction data was the most meaningful in terms of assessing safety: it was used as a proxy for the number of passengers being hit by the doors, an indication of items that could be trapped (risk of dragging), and an indication of the number of passengers running (risk of slips and trips). If LU's concerns about the hustle effect were correct, an increase of door obstructions would be observed.

To be effective, the trial needed to ascertain the before and after situation so data and observations were obtained prior to August 2017 after which the chime duration was changed to three seconds for a duration of six months. The whole Victoria line fleet of 47 trains, each of eight cars, were altered so as to get consistency and accurately observe passenger behaviour. The results have proved interesting.

The door open and close sequence is well disciplined at peak hours with regular travellers standing clear of the doors before getting on to allow passengers getting off to disembark more quickly. This discipline is less well followed during off peak periods when unfamiliar travellers tend to block the door egress thus slowing the whole process. A longer chime duration did allow more time to get out of the way of the doors but equally gave more time to try to board.

The sounding of the chime has always been known to prompt late boarders to run for the nearest door. With 1.8 seconds, the time was insufficient for this to be successful unless very close to a door. Extending the time to three seconds saw an increase of the hustle factor with the result that noticeably more door obstructions occurred. This worsened the safety risks as more doors were striking or trapping passengers, the numbers of trips/falls increased and more pushing/falling of other travellers took place. Clearly there is a linkage between door obstructions and passenger demand with the number of obstructions using a 1.8 seconds chime remaining fairly constant throughout the year, rising slightly between October and the year end. Introducing the three seconds chime saw a marked increase in obstructions during the lead up to Christmas, during the January sales and at public holiday weekends. The overall finding is that off peak, more people run for a door once the chime sounds as the platforms are less crowded, whereas in the peak more people try and squeeze in.

Not surprisingly, the highest number of door obstructions happen at the busier stations. The northbound platform at Victoria was by far the worst with an average of 245 obstructions happening each day during the three second chime period, an increase of 60 (32%) over the 1.8 seconds time. Oxford Circus and Kings Cross also recorded high numbers of around 150, in all cases the longer chime time being marginally worse. At less busy stations the effect was more prominent; at Highbury & Islington southbound in the morning peak, the obstructions rose 80% with the extended chime time and indeed a worsening was noticed right throughout the day. The door obstructions are also markedly different down the length of the train. At Oxford Circus the doors in the second and third rear cars, close to where the interchange for the Bakerloo and Central lines takes place, the number of door obstructions are significantly greater and made worse with the three second timing.

Analysing the trial

Clearly the increase in chime time had a detrimental effect on obstruction occurrences and, due to the safety impact, the Victoria line fleet has since reverted to a 1.8 second timing. That said, it has been necessary to submit the findings to vested interest groups. Presentations have been given to London Underground (DRACCT - Director's Risk Assurance Change Control Team), to Transport for London (TfL) and to the Department for Transport (DfT, in effect the government). The DfT have forwarded the results to the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). A passenger questionnaire has been conducted in an attempt to establish what passengers believe are the safety risks associated with their journey. Approximately 150 responses were received, which is considered sufficient to gain some understanding but is a very small sample compared to the approximate 75 million passenger journeys made on the Victoria Line during the period of the trial. Of the 150 responses, 60% considered themselves to have a disability. Oddly the time to board and door closure time feature less than the fear of interaction with other passengers who might in their urgency to board could push people both on the train and on the platform. There was little difference in the result from both disabled and non-disabled passengers.

Overall the trial findings have been well received since there is now hard proof that the three second chime offers no betterment and has a negative impact on safety. The recommendation from LU is that the standard should remain at 1.75 + 0.25 seconds and this is being considered by the aforementioned organisations. London Underground stress that they are totally committed to improve accessibility across the entire network with step free access being provided at an increasing number of stations and large projects underway to improve accessibility in rolling stock features.

Factors for the future

It may be asked how this trial impacts on other metro/light rail operators and indeed mainline suburban services. Since Docklands Light Railway is part of TfL, the same criteria will likely apply whatever the final outcome. Main line operation is different in that it provides timetabled departures rather than a high frequency, turn up and go service, and as such passengers have more time to plan their journey and associated timings at a station. That said the likes of Thameslink and Crossrail in the central London sections, may be more akin to LU operation.

The eventual adoption of fully automatic trains (Unattended Train Operation - UTO) may well become reality. They exist already in locations worldwide, and for instance on the Paris Metro (Lines 1 and 14) where door operation is programmed automatically dependent on the particular station and the time of day. When the programmed time has elapsed, the doors will begin to close regardless of whether boarding is still taking place or not. Centralised CCTV monitoring of conditions takes place both on platform and train so that remote intervention can happen should anything untoward occur. Travellers have got used to this and it is now part of normal life. The current modernisation of the Glasgow Subway will adopt UTO when completed in the early 2020s.

So, a fascinating subject with many complex interactions. As the population of London increases so the pressure to provide more and more public transport services will mount and the need to be up to speed with technology and optimum routines will become ever more vital.

Thanks are expressed to Zoe Dobell from LU for the information given and who was the project engineer for the trial.

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