伦敦维多利亚线CBTC改造后的车门关闭提示音时长影响研究

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1、概述

本文围绕伦敦地铁维多利亚线的车门关闭提示音时长展开研究，为平衡列车运量、乘客安全与无障碍乘客的需求，伦敦地铁开展了将提示音从1.8秒（1.75秒+0.25秒）延长至3秒的六个月试验，结果显示3秒时长虽符合RVAR法规要求，但会加剧“匆忙登车”效应，导致车门障碍物事件增加32%（部分车站达80%）、乘客绊倒/推挤风险上升，且未给残疾与非残疾乘客带来实质便利，最终维多利亚线恢复原时长，同时文章还提及未来全自动列车（UTO）等技术对车门运营的潜在影响。

2、研究背景与核心动因

Ø行业发展与运能需求：CBTC技术在地铁的广泛应用，伦敦地铁维多利亚线借助该技术实现双向36对/小时的高运量，大幅改善乘客拥挤状况；泰晤士link、横贯铁路等线路也计划推广CBTC技术以提升运能。

Ø关键制约因素：列车停站时间是影响运量的核心—若停留时间超数秒，后续列车延误将快速累积；若服务间隔达到3-4分钟，站台拥挤会进一步延长停留时间，形成恶性循环。

Ø法规与实际矛盾：2010年《铁路车辆无障碍条例》（RVAR）要求延长车门提示音时长以保障残疾乘客权益，但伦敦地铁担忧该要求缺乏科学依据，可能引发运营问题，因此启动专项试验。

3、车门关闭相关机制

Ø列车到站停稳并对准位置后，司机启动开门；乘客上下车完成后，关门提示音响起，随后车门开始关闭；若车门无异物，司机的关门指示灯亮起，ATO（自动列车运行）线路可按下启动按钮，手动驾驶线路则由司机启动牵引力。

Ø核心争议：提示音时长差异的影响

时长差异：LU标准1.8秒 vs RVAR要求3秒，单次差异虽小，但全程累积会显著降低整体运能；

仓促效应：提示音响起时，乘客会急于就近上车避免错过列车—通勤常客会先寻找目的地出口附近的车门，而非立即上车；游客等非常客则可能携带行李冲向最近车门，易导致上车不充分，引发车门卡住；

卡住后果：每起车门卡住至少需5秒解决，若沿线路累积，延误影响显著。

Ø不同列车的车门安全设计差异

现代列车（如维多利亚线列车、S型郊区列车）：具备车门障碍物检测功能，卡住时车门会部分重开，且车门边缘敏感—若列车启动后车门边缘发生形变（即使是薄物卡住），也会触发紧急制动；

老旧列车：需车门完全关闭后才能启动牵引力，但该设计并非万无一失，背包带、腰带等物品易被卡住且难以检测；

乘客认知误区：非常乘客常误以为地铁车门会像电梯门一样检测到卡住后自动重开，但英国所有带滑动门的列车均无此功能，进一步加剧了卡住风险。

4、试验结果

安全风险显著上升

车门障碍物故障：3秒时长下整体增加，维多利亚北站北行站台日均达245起，较1.8秒时期增长32%（+60起）；牛津广场、国王十字车站日均约150起；海布里&伊斯灵顿南站早高峰增长80%。

衍生风险：更多乘客被车门撞击/困住，绊倒、推挤事件增多；列车中部车厢（靠近换乘通道）车门卡住事件更集中。

Ø乘客行为变化

通勤客：熟悉站台布局，不会立即上车，而是走向目标车门，受提示音时长影响小。

非通勤客（如游客）：听到提示音后会携行李匆忙冲向最近车门，3秒时长给予更多奔跑时间，导致登机不完整、车门拥堵。

Ø无障碍性未改善：残疾与非残疾乘客均表示，3秒提示音对登机便利性无实质帮助，反而更担忧与其他乘客的推挤互动。

Ø运营效率受影响：单个车门障碍物事件需≥5秒解决，沿线累积会显著延长停留时间，降低整体运能。

5、结论与未来展望

Ø试验结论：3秒提示音未带来任何改善，反而加剧安全风险，因此维多利亚线恢复1.8秒（1.75秒+0.25秒）提示音标准；该结论已提交至TfL、DfT、DPTAC等机构。

Ø伦敦地铁的无障碍承诺：持续推进全网络无障碍改造，包括增加无障碍车站、优化列车无障碍设施。

Ø未来趋势：全自动列车（UTO）将普及，如巴黎地铁1号线、14号线及21世纪20年代完成改造的格拉斯哥地铁，车门运营将按车站、时段自动编程。超时后无论乘客是否上下车均会关门，平台与列车均配备集中式CCTV监控，可远程干预异常情况。格拉斯哥地铁现代化改造后，也将在21世纪20年代初采用UTO模式。干线铁路（如泰晤士link、横贯铁路市中心段）可能面临类似地铁的停站时间挑战。

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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