New Haven MU Door stuck open 125-GCT

[brettj22]

Not seeking any "official comment" or anything, but if the train were moving at any significant speed, I'd be a little loathe to pull the emergency brake because that can cause injuries to anyone standing up not expecting it... On the M-7's we can use the emergency intercom, but on the earlier M-series cars or the bomb cars, would pushing the conductor signal button have accomplished stopping the train in a safer fashion than pulling the emergency brake or at least gotten the conductor to come to the door in question?

[GreenportScoot]

Well, the railroad takes it pretty seriously. Anytime this happens -when a door spontaneously opens -the train crew must visually ensure each door is closed on the entire train. A process that depending on the length of the train can easily take up to 5 minutes for each station stop. The railroad would much rather have a few late trains than a serious injury or worse, fatality. If someone pulled the brake on my train if this happened I would completely understand.

Another thing to keep in mind... not every incident that happens makes it to the media or this forum.

Thats completely understandable, but it's really no surprise that those in the car didn't care all that much about the 'situation'.

[Jeff Smith]

How hard does the train stop when the emergency brake is applied? Is it like locking the brakes on your car? Does the train gradually stop? Or does everything in the train go flying forward?

If someone is perched by the door, this could be important.

[RearOfSignal]

Yeah, everything goes flying forward when the train goes into emergency. But it's not like you see in the movies, sparks occasionally from sliding wheels, but no one is going out a window or thrown head over heels. But you can hardly say that it would be wrong to dump the train in that instant. A crew member would probably use the buzzer to stop the train instead of dumping it, in fact I'm not sure if there is a big difference between B-max(or full suppression) and an emergency application, once the wheels lock up you're gonna slide regardless.

Keep in mind these people were already late so on the way to work they probably didn't want to delay their trip any further. Regardless of all this there is signage on all the doors saying not to lean on them, seems like good advice to me.

[brettj22]

Had it been the other door leaf that stuck open, I would have been worried about the person standing next to it possibly falling out if I pulled the emergency brake...

[Northeastern292]

Fahey's comment is spot-on. These people should be alerting a conductor, not standing around and recording video.

I know, a bit old news, but I'm back up in school now, and that's definitely scary news. I watched a news clip, and I thought someone did alert a conductor. Seems not.